Floods

In Central Europe, due to its moderate climate, floods can occur in every season. During extensive events, not only large areas can be flooded, but due to a long-lasting hydraulic stress, dikes may be soaked through or washed out and may eventually break, usually leading to a high degree of damage. But also less extensive events represent a natural hazard. After heavy rainfalls, at creeks and small rivers near the source, dangerous flash floods may occur.

In the NaDiNe flood experts team, representatives from the Helmholtz centers GFZ and DLR gathered in order to bundle their expertise and to exchange state-of-the-art knowledge in their scientific fields. Hydrologists, focussing on reseach in hydlraulic modelling and damage degree estimation, as well as meteorologists und remote sensing specialists concentrating on the assessment, description, and analysis of floods, work in the team.

In this section you can get more information about projects and activities within the Helmholtz Association regarding the topic "floods" as well as a selection of useful background information about this natural hazard, compiled by our experts. In this context, special attention is given to rivers and their catchments in Germany.

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		Flood in Romania July 23, 2010 Categories: End of June 2010, heavy rainfalls unleashed floods in northern and eastern Romania. Numerous people were reported dead and hundreds had to be evacuated from their homes. Several roads and hundreds of hectares of farmland were inundated, dozens of houses destroyed and several bridges damaged.   More...
		Floods on the River Oder (German-Polish Border) June 03, 2010 Categories: During the middle of May, a low-pressure area over Ukraine lead to a very intense rainfall in southern Poland. Between May 16, 2010 and May 18, 2010 a rainfall amount of 300 l/m² was registered in the catchment area of the Oder (Southern Poland and Czech Republic). These heavy rainfall intensities lead to inundations of the Oder.   More...
		Flooding in Albania January 12, 2010 Categories: Heavy rainfalls and unusually warm weather have caused flooding in the northwestern region of Albania since January 4, 2010. Furthermore, the authorities were forced to open the gates of a hydropower station dam to prevent it from breaking.   More...
		Online database for flood damage - HOWAS 21 March 02, 2009 Categories: Flooding can, also in Germany, cause damages amounting to billions. With the flood loss database, HOWAS 21, scientists from the GFZ, Germany’s national lab for geosciences have compiled a profound data basis from multiple sources for the research of flood damage. These data serve for a better understanding of the occurrence of flood damage and the assessment of the effectiveness of prevention measures.   More...
		Hochwasserschadendatenbank HOWAS 21 in Testphase August 05, 2008 Categories: HOWAS 21 ist der Name einer objekt-spezifischen Hochwasserschadensdatenbank für Deutschland für verschiedene Sektoren, die vom Deutschen GeoForschungsZentrum aufgebaut und betrieben wird. Schadensdaten aus verschiedenen Quellen wurden hierzu in ein einheitliches System integriert und erlauben nun einen zentralen Zugang über das Internet. Das System hat eine erste Testphase durch potentielle Nutzer erfolgreich absolviert und wird hinsichtlich der verschiedenen Anregungen zurzeit überarbeitet und ausgebaut.   More...
		Cyclone Nargis: Disastrous storm surge in Myanmar May 09, 2008 Categories: On May 2nd, 2008, tropical cyclone 'Nargis' swept over Myanmar and left behind a path of destruction. Wind speeds of more than 200 km/h and a storm surge of up to 3 meters in height destroyed more than 90 percent of housing and large parts of infrastructure in some regions. It is believed that more then 100,000 people could have died and more than a million people have lost their homes in the disaster (16/05/08).   More...

You can find more information in our  archive.