Potential flood hazard and risk mapping at pan-European scale

Abstract

In the last decade Europe has experienced a number of unusually longlasting rainfall events that produced severe floods, e.g. in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany in 1993 and 1995, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany in 1997, in North Italy (in 1994 and 2000), in the UK (e.g. in 1998 and 2000), Tisza (in 2000 and 2001), in the Elbe and Danube in 2002, and in 2005 in Romania and the northern Alpine region. There seems to be a trend of increasing flood hazard. This may support projections of future climate indicating that further increases in severe floods in North and Northwest Europe are likely (e.g. IPCC 2001). The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) provides EU policy support on flood issues, especially focused on cross-border river basins. In addition to the work on the development of an early warning system at the pan-European scale (EFAS, the European Flood Alert System), JRC carries out flood mitigation and forecasting case studies in the Elbe and Danube catchments, and flash floods, climate change effects and flood risk mapping at European scale [1].