NRFA data inform flood timing and river flow trend studies

The National River Flow Archive has contributed to a number of international studies over the past few months.

NRFA data was included in a pan-European river flow data set of 4,262 gauging stations across 38 countries in a new study which highlights the link between climate change and the timing of floods. The study, published in the journal, Science on 11th August 2017, has suggested there is clear patterns of change in flood timing over the last 50 years. The study was funded by a European Research Council Advanced Grant award, highlights that if current trends continue ‘considerable economic and environmental consequences may arise.’.1

In another recent international collaboration2, which the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology led the European component of NRFA data was included to assess the trends in major floods in North America and Europe. The paper in Journal of Hydrology led by the USGS goes on to conclude that the number of significant trends in major flood occurrence across North America and Europe was approximately the number expected due to chance alone. 

 

References

1Günter Blöschl, Julia Hall, Juraj Parajka, Rui A. P. Perdigão, Bruno Merz, Berit Arheimer, Giuseppe T. Aronica, Ardian Bilibashi, Ognjen Bonacci, Marco Borga, Ivan Čanjevac, Attilio Castellarin, Giovanni B. Chirico, Pierluigi Claps, Károly Fiala, Natalia Frolova, Liudmyla Gorbachova, Ali Gül, Jamie Hannaford, Shaun Harrigan, Maria Kireeva, Andrea Kiss, Thomas R. Kjeldsen, Silvia Kohnová, Jarkko J. Koskela, Ondrej Ledvinka, Neil Macdonald, Maria Mavrova-Guirguinova, Luis Mediero, Ralf Merz, Peter Molnar, Alberto Montanari, Conor Murphy, Marzena Osuch, Valeryia Ovcharuk, Ivan Radevski, Magdalena Rogger, José L. Salinas, Eric Sauquet, Mojca Šraj, Jan Szolgay, Alberto Viglione, Elena Volpi, Donna Wilson, Klodian Zaimi, and Nenad Živković, ‘Changing climate shifts timing of European floods,' Science, Vol 357, Issue 6351, pages 588 - 590, DOI: 10.1126/science.aan2506, published online 10 August 2017.

2Glenn A. Hodgkins, Paul H. Whitfield, Donald H. Burn, Jamie Hannaford, Benjamin Renard, Kerstin Stahl, Anne K. Fleig, Henrik Madsen, Luis Mediero, Johanna Korhonen, Conor Murphy, Donna Wilson, ‘Climate-driven variability in the occurrence of major floods across North America and Europe,' Journal of Hydrology, Vol 552, Pages 704-717, September 2017, DOI.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.07.027, published online 14 July 2017.