FloodDrivers

Floods cause fatalities and economic damage in Europe every year. The scale of flood losses is regulated by multiple factors including climate variation, demographic and economic structure and growth, land use, river regulation and reservoir construction, flood adaptation and mitigation measures. The proposed project aims to re-evaluate recorded fluvial and coastal flood losses that have occurred since 1950 in order to attribute them, on one hand, to change in climate forcing and, on the other, to the evolving social and economic conditions. Understanding and capturing statistically the influence of factors comprising the ever-changing natural and artificial environment would enable more efficient adaptation to floods and more accurate predictions of future flood losses under warming global climate.