The catastrophic floods of AD 1617 in Catalonia (northeast Spain) and their climatic context

Abstract

This paper presents a reconstruction of the catastrophic floods of AD 1617 in Catalonia (northeast Spain). Compilation of archival data sources shows that heavy rainfall occurred from 2 to 6 November 1617 and that the resultant flooding caused severe damage throughout the region, including the destruction of at least 389 houses, 22 bridges and 17 water mills. Discharges of 2700-4500 m3 s-1 and ≤2000 m3 s-1 were estimated from dated palaeostage indicators for the Ter and Segre rivers, respectively, whilst 4680 m3 s-1 was calculated for the Llobregat River flood in a previous study (Thorndycraft et al., 2005). The magnitude of the 1617 floods of the Llobregat and Ter rivers exceeded the largest events of the instrumental data series (2300 and 2350 m3 s-1, respectively). The 1617 floods are also compared to the longer-term palaeoflood record, which shows that the largest floods in the region were associated with colder phases of climatic variability. Copyright © 2006 IAHS Press.