Invitation to FWF-DK Guest Lecture, Nov 25th 12.00
Floods in a changing world
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Günter Blöschl
Institute of Hydrology and Water Resource Management,
Vienna University of Technology
Wednesday, November 25th, 2015, 12.00 to 13.00 at Seminar Room Wegener Center, Brandhofg. 5/1st floor
There has been a surprisingly large number of major floods in the last years around the world which suggests that floods may have increased and will continue to increase in the next decades.
However, the realism of such changes is still hotly discussed in the literature. In this presen-tation I will argue that a fresh look is needed at the flood change problem in terms of the causal factors including river training, land use changes and climate variability. Analysing spatial patterns of dynamic flood characteristics helps learn from the rich diversity of flood processes across the landscape. I will present a number of examples across Europe to illus-trate a range of flood generation processes and the causal factors of changes in the flood re-gime. On the basis of these examples, I will demonstrate how comparative hydrology can assist in learning from the differences of flood characteristics between catchments both for present and future conditions. Focus on the interactions of hydrological and meteorological factors will be instrumental in identifying any changes in the flood occurrence and attrib-uting them to their causes.
Please register at bettina.schlager@uni-graz.at until November 23rd (12:00) so that we can prepare a sandwich for you!
Organised by the FWF-DK Climate Change in cooperation with the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change at the University of Graz