Natural disaster#Floods

As flood disaster is defined as the flood on the coast or a river, which rises so high that the normal water levels are exceeded far and the beds and embankments, the water can no longer hold back before cultivated land, so that there will be flooding. High damage to buildings and infrastructure, crop damage and in extreme cases, fatalities are the result. In a flood with exceptionally high water levels, which occurs very rarely, one speaks of a hundred-year flood.

Floods are distinguished by type in:

  • The storm surge of strong winds pressed to the coasts of the water masses, leading to flooding in the coastal region, and backwater flooding in the lower reaches of the rivers. These events occur within a few hours, their total duration is dependent on flow patterns
  • Precipitation -induced floods caused by torrential rain events that affect most catchment areas of one or more river system / s, and to continue in most of the mountainous headwaters, in the depart congestion rainfall for days in the lower reaches

Not as a flood in the sense of the concept of tsunami ( tidal wave ) is considered.

The causes lie in the straightening and damming of rivers, to make it navigable for large cargo ships as possible, and in the drainage of entire regions and thus the removal of natural flood plains. The settlement until close to the dikes approach, even in repeatedly flood-prone areas, inevitably results in high losses during flooding by itself. Relationships with global warming are suspected in two types of events in the former above the normal water level rising, both of increased exceptional events in relation to wind and precipitation as a consequence of global warming.

Historic floods in Europe

Germany

Floods on the North Sea recorded the list of storm surges along the North Sea.

Floods on the Baltic Sea are under the Baltic Sea # Water level and described in more detail under storm flood.

Flood disasters are frequently occurred in the following rivers: Danube, Elbe, Oder, Rhine, Moselle

  • Magdalene flood in 1342 in numerous Central European rivers
  • Second Marcellus in 1362 on the entire German North Sea coast is considered by far the most powerful German flood disaster
  • Flood of 1501
  • Rhine and Lake Constance Flood of 1566
  • Thuringian Flood 1613
  • Winter floods of 1784
  • Elbe flood 1845
  • Flood in Saxony in 1897
  • Flood in Hannover 1946
  • Or floods in 1947 with the flooding of the Oder
  • Danube flood in 1954
  • Storm flood in 1962 in Hamburg
  • Or flood the 1981/82
  • Rhine flood in 1993, the same flood of Moselle and Meuse
  • Rhine flood in 1995
  • Or the 1997 floods on the Oder and tributaries
  • Whitsun flood 1999 Allgaeu, Vorarlberg and Tyrol
  • Floods in Central Europe in 2002
  • Floods in the Alps 2005 Isar and other rivers
  • Elbe flood 2006
  • Or flood 2010
  • Floods in Central Europe in 2013

France

  • Floods in the Pyrenees 2013

Netherlands

  • First Marcellus on 16 January 1219.
  • Second Marcellus 1362
  • Floods of 1953 ( Watersnood ) on February 1, 1953

Austria

  • Danube flood in 1954
  • 1997 in Southern Lower Austria occur numerous rivers burst their banks. Particularly affected: Pittental, Schwarzadal Piestingtal and Triestingtal.
  • 2002 In Upper and Lower Austria occur numerous rivers overflow their banks, vast tracts of land are under water. Particularly affected were the Danube and the Kamp. ( HQ100, see floods in Central Europe 2002 )
  • 2005 In the western provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg occurred after days of rainfall flows over the banks. Numerous landslides lay partially paralyzed public transport (see Alpine floods of 2005 ).
  • 2006 In Lower Austria the March emerges from the banks and dams hold in contrast to those on the Slovak side not Stand The places Dürnkrut and Manner village are flooded. ( HQ60 )
  • Floods in Central Europe in 2013

Switzerland

  • 2005 ( August) villages are flooded by dams or lakes or rivers overflowing in central Switzerland, Graubünden and Bern as well as in many other parts of Switzerland. Several roads and train tracks are no longer passable. Individual villages (eg Engelberg ) are cut off from the outside world and can only be reached by helicopter (see Alpine floods of 2005 ).

Historic floods in other countries

Prehistoric floods

  • About 7600 years ago, the water level had raised so far in the Mediterranean after the end of the last glacial period, that the valley of the Bosphorus was flooded by about 100 m. After that, a huge waterfall could have poured into the Black Sea, during the cold period, a freshwater lake. The water incident left a Grabenausspülung preserved to this day along the coastline. This theory is not generally accepted her There are numerous analytical results.
  • Years ago about 10200-9400 several times a mighty flood occurred in the territory of Minnesota during the melting of the glacial lake Agassiz.
  • Approximately 10,700 years ago, at the end of the last glacial period, the waters of the Ancylussees broke (now Baltic Sea) train towards the North Sea. The newly formed and now submarine grave -like riverbed between Fehmarn and Lolland is about 1 km wide. While the water level of Ancylussees decreased by 10 m, the sea flooded east of Kiel and Lübeck, the former mainland.
  • Years ago, about 14,000, the largest ever known flood occurred due to melting of Eisstauseen in Altai, in Chuja and in Kuray Basin.
  • In the period 15000-13000 years ago, the mighty Missoula Floods occurred repeatedly during the melting of Eisstauseen of Lake Missoula in North America.
  • One theory of Andrey Tchepalyga According to been flooded from melting glaciers Scandinavian about 16,000 years ago, the Caspian Sea quickly by river water, and be coalesced with the former lake Black Sea.
  • Prior to about 425,000 and 225,000 years ago, but after the last glacial period, to large water breakthroughs occurred in the area of the former isthmus between Dover and Calais, which led to the widening and deepening of the current dimension of the English Channel. Thus, the most water then European river system from the Rhine, the Seine and the Thames has been replaced by a stretch of sea.
  • Prior to about 5.33 million years ago the Mediterranean basin then dried- was met by the water of the Atlantic Ocean at the Strait of Gibraltar. Presumably, this flooding was at least partially not catastrophic. The resulting moat was about 200 km long and up to 11 km wide and had about 100 million cubic meters of water per second flow. Maximum while the water level of the Mediterranean Sea rose to 10 m per day, within two years, the water levels had equalized.
Catchment area (human geography) Storm tides of the North Sea Meuse (river) 1997 Central European flood North Sea flood of 1953 Schwarza (Leitha) Mudslide 2005 European floods Morava (river) Central Valley (California) Arkstorm 1887 Yellow River flood Cyclone Bengal 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami Bulgaria Africa Monsoon of South Asia Dam failure Bihar Benin Mono River Cholera Ancylus Lake Altai Mountains Chuya River Berliner Morgenpost Digital Object Identifier
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