De_Luca_et_al_2017_ERL.pdf (2.38 MB)
Extreme multi-basin flooding linked with extra-tropical cyclones
journal contribution
posted on 2017-08-30, 08:06 authored by Paolo De Luca, John HillierJohn Hillier, Robert WilbyRobert Wilby, Nevil W. Quinn, Shaun HarriganFluvial floods are typically investigated as ‘events’ at the single basin-scale, hence flood management authorities may underestimate the threat of flooding across multiple basins driven by large-scale and nearly concurrent atmospheric event(s). We pilot a national-scale statistical analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics of extreme multi-basin flooding (MBF) episodes, using peak river flow data for 260 basins in Great Britain (1975-2014), a sentinel region for storms impacting northwest and central Europe. During the most widespread MBF episode, 108 basins (~46% of the study area) recorded Annual Maximum (AMAX) discharge within a 16-day window. Such episodes are associated with persistent cyclonic and westerly atmospheric circulations, atmospheric rivers, and precipitation falling onto previously saturated ground, leading to hydrological response times <40h and documented flood impacts. Furthermore, peak flows tend to occur after 0-13 days of very severe gales causing combined and spatially-distributed, yet differentially time-lagged, wind and flood damages. These findings have implications for emergency responders, insurers and contingency planners worldwide.
Funding
The authors thank the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for providing Scottish peak flow data, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology for the SPI data, Swen Brands for providing the AR array along with detailed information, the RCUK (CENTA NERC) for the funding availability.
History
Department
- Geography and Environment
Published in
Environmental Research LettersVolume
12Issue
11Citation
DE LUCA, P. ... et al, 2017. Extreme multi-basin flooding linked with extra-tropical cyclones. Environmental Research Letters, 12, 114009.Publisher
IOP Publishing (© The Authors)Version
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Acceptance date
2017-08-16Publication date
2017-11-01Notes
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by IOP Publishing under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/eISSN
1748-9326Publisher version
Language
- en