Abstract
The flash-flood in Braunsbach in the north-eastern part of Baden-Wuerttemberg/Germany was a particularly strong and concise event which took place during the floods in southern Germany at the end of May/early June 2016. This article presents a detailed analysis of the hydro-meteorological forcing and the hydrological consequences of this event. A specific approach, the “forensic hydrological analysis” was followed in order to include and combine retrospectively a variety of data from different disciplines. Such an approach investigates the origins, mechanisms and course of such natural events if possible in a “near real time” mode, in order to follow the most recent traces of the event. The results show that it was a very rare rainfall event with extreme intensities which, in combination with catchment properties, led to extreme runoff plus severe geomorphological hazards, i.e. great debris flows, which together resulted in immense damage in this small rural town Braunsbach. It was definitely a record-breaking event and greatly exceeded existing design guidelines for extreme flood discharge for this region, i.e. by a factor of about 10. Being such a rare or even unique event, it is not reliably feasible to put it into a crisp probabilistic context. However, one can conclude that a return period clearly above 100 years can be assigned for all event components: rainfall, peak discharge and sediment transport. Due to the complex and interacting processes, no single flood cause or reason for the very high damage can be identified, since only the interplay and the cascading characteristics of those led to such an event. The roles of different human activities on the origin and/or intensification of such an extreme event are finally discussed.
| Originalsprache | Englisch |
|---|---|
| Seiten (von - bis) | 977-991 |
| Seitenumfang | 15 |
| Fachzeitschrift | Science of the Total Environment |
| Jahrgang | 630 |
| DOIs | |
| Publikationsstatus | Veröffentlicht - 15 Juli 2018 |
Fördermittel
We thank the inhabitants and the local administration of Braunsbach for their continuous support for our field-visits and studies. We are grateful to the flood forecasting center (HVZ), the state authorities for the environment (LUBW) of Baden-Württemberg State, and the German Weather Service (DWD) for providing discharge data of the Kocher River and rainfall data, respectively. Furthermore we very much appreciate the administrative support from the Baden-Württemberg State authorities. We also want to express our thanks to Dr. Ana Lucia Vela, University of Tübingen, for the interesting discussions, joint field visits and for providing us with insights into sediment transport processes, in particular regarding woody debris. And we kindly acknowledge with thanks the photographs made available by V. Rözer (GFZ Potsdam) and J. Kolb (Braunsbach), and the detailed analysis about the land use by Frederic Blau, University of Tübingen. J.A. López-Tarazón, during the earlier part of the study, was in receipt of a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (Project “Floodhazards” PIEF-GA-2013-622468). He also acknowledges the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia for supporting the Consolidated Research Group (Grant No: 2014 SGR 645). Lisei Köhn-Reich is funded through a DFG individual research grant (project “SHIVA” Grant No: BR 1731/17) and Irene Crisologo by a DAAD Doctoral Research Grant (Grant No: 91566612). Last but not least, we thank the German Science Foundation/Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for funding of the Research and training group “Natural Hazards and Risks in a Changing World” (NatRiskChange; Grant No: GRK 2043/1), where most of the PhD-researchers participating in this study are funded from. We thank the inhabitants and the local administration of Braunsbach for their continuous support for our field-visits and studies. We are grateful to the flood forecasting center (HVZ), the state authorities for the environment (LUBW) of Baden-Württemberg State, and the German Weather Service (DWD) for providing discharge data of the Kocher River and rainfall data, respectively. Furthermore we very much appreciate the administrative support from the Baden-Württemberg State authorities. We also want to express our thanks to Dr. Ana Lucia Vela, University of Tübingen, for the interesting discussions, joint field visits and for providing us with insights into sediment transport processes, in particular regarding woody debris. And we kindly acknowledge with thanks the photographs made available by V. Rözer (GFZ Potsdam) and J. Kolb (Braunsbach), and the detailed analysis about the land use by Frederic Blau, University of Tübingen. J.A. López-Tarazón, during the earlier part of the study, was in receipt of a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (Project “Floodhazards”, PIEF-GA-2013-622468). He also acknowledges the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia for supporting the Consolidated Research Group (Grant No: 2014 SGR 645 ). Lisei Köhn-Reich is funded through a DFG individual research grant (project “SHIVA”, Grant No: BR 1731/17 ) and Irene Crisologo by a DAAD Doctoral Research Grant (Grant No: 91566612 ). Last but not least, we thank the German Science Foundation/ Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for funding of the Research and training group “Natural Hazards and Risks in a Changing World” (NatRiskChange; Grant No: GRK 2043/1 ), where most of the PhD-researchers participating in this study are funded from.
ÖFOS 2012
- 105404 Geomorphologie
- 105304 Hydrologie
- 105902 Naturgefahren
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