# River Rhine 740 Year Documentary Flood Reconstruction #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, Boulder # and # NOAA Paleoclimatology Program #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # NOTE: Please cite Publication, and Online_Resource and date accessed when using these data. # If there is no publication information, please cite Investigators, Title, and Online_Resource and date accessed. # # # Online_Resource: http://ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/17617 # # Original_Source_URL: ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/europe/switzerland/rhine2011flood.txt # # Description/Documentation lines begin with # # Data lines have no # # # Archive: Historical #-------------------- # Contribution_Date # Date: 2014-12-10 #-------------------- # Title # Study_Name: River Rhine 740 Year Documentary Flood Reconstruction #-------------------- # Investigators # Investigators: Wetter, O.; Pfister, C.; Weingartner, R.; Luterbacher, J.; Reist, T.; Trosche, J. #-------------------- # Description_and_Notes # Description: Reconstructed peak discharge for the 78 largest known floods of the River Rhine in Basel since 1268, # from instrumental and documentary sources. Source references included in the Excel version of this file. #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Oliver Wetter, Christian Pfister, Rolf Weingartner, Jurg Luterbacher, Tom Reist, and Jurg Trosche # Published_Date_or_Year: 2011-07-12 # Published_Title: The largest floods in the High Rhine basin since 1268 assessed from documentary and instrumental evidence # Journal_Name: Hydrological Sciences Journal # Volume: 56 # Edition: # Issue: 5 # Pages: 733-758 # DOI: 10.1080/02626667.2011.583613 # Online_Resource: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2011.583613#.VJmww886AA # Full_Citation: # Abstract: The magnitudes of the largest known floods of the River Rhine in Basel since 1268 were assessed using a hydraulic model drawing on a set of pre-instrumental evidence and daily hydrological measurements from 1808. The pre-instrumental evidence, consisting of flood marks and documentary data describing extreme events with the customary reference to specific landmarks, was "calibrated" by comparing it with the instrumental series for the overlapping period between the two categories of evidence (1808-1900). Summer (JJA) floods were particularly frequent in the century between 1651-1750, when precipitation was also high. Severe winter (DJF) floods have not occurred since the late 19th century despite a significant increase in winter precipitation. Six catastrophic events involving a runoff greater than 6000 m 3 s-1 are documented prior to 1700. They were initiated by spells of torrential rainfall of up to 72 h (1480 event) and preceded by long periods of substantial precipitation that saturated the soils, and/or by abundant snowmelt. All except two (1999 and 2007) of the 43 identified severe events (SEs: defined as having runoff > 5000 and < 6000 m 3 s -1) occurred prior to 1877. Not a single SE is documented from 1877 to 1998. The intermediate 121-year-long "flood disaster gap" is unique over the period since 1268. The effect of river regulations (1714 for the River Kander; 1877 for the River Aare) and the building of reservoirs in the 20th century upon peak runoff were investigated using a one-dimensional hydraulic flood-routing model. Results show that anthropogenic effects only partially account for the "flood disaster gap" suggesting that variations in climate should also be taken into account in explaining these features. #------------------ # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: Swiss National Science Foundation # Grant: 10011-120157/1 #------------------ # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR) # Grant: #------------------ # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: European Union # Grant: ACQWA 212250 #------------------ # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft # Grant: PRIME (LU1608/1-1, AOBJ: 568460, LU 1608/2-1, AOBJ 575150 #------------------ # Site_Information # Site_Name: Basel # Location: Europe>Western Europe>Switzerland # Country: Switzerland # Northernmost_Latitude: 47.5601 # Southernmost_Latitude: 47.5601 # Easternmost_Longitude: 7.5898 # Westernmost_Longitude: 7.5898 # Elevation: 250 m #------------------ # Data_Collection # Collection_Name: Rhine2011flood # Earliest_Year: 1268 # Most_Recent_Year: 2013 # Time_Unit: AD # Core_Length: m # Notes: #------------------ # Chronology: # # # #---------------- # Variables # # Data variables follow that are preceded by "##" in columns one and two. # Data line variables format: Variables list, one per line, shortname-tab-longname-tab-longname components (9 components: what, material, error, units, seasonality, archive, detail, method, C or N for Character or Numeric data) # ## age_AD age, , , AD, , , , ,N ## flow-recmin-m3s Streamflow, , , cubic meters per second, , , Peak discharge minimum estimate, documentary reconstruction,N ## flow-recmax-m3s Streamflow, , , cubic meters per second, , , Peak discharge maximum estimate, documentary reconstruction,N ## flow-rec-m3s Streamflow, , , cubic meters per second, , , Peak discharge estimate, documentary reconstruction,N # #---------------- # Data: # Data lines follow (have no #) # Data line format - tab-delimited text, variable short name as header # Missing Values: # age_AD flow-recmin-m3s flow-recmax-m3s flow-rec-m3s 1268 5611 6407 5611 1275 5611 6407 5611 1302 5611 5611 1342 6407 6407 1342 5755 5755 1374 6407 6407 1385 5134 5134 1404 5611 6407 5611 1421 5611 5611 1424 6407 6407 1451 6009 6407 6407 1480 6407 6407 1506 5389 5389 1526 5755 5755 1565 5118 5611 5118 1565 5261 5611 5261 1566 5611 5611 1566 6057 6057 1570 6407 6407 1589 5611 5611 1641 5579 5579 1651 6407 6407 6407 1652 6407 6407 6407 1662 5134 5134 1663 5389 5389 1664 5389 5389 1673 6407 7107 6407 1679 5659 6407 5659 1689 5389 5389 1690 4911 4911 1693 5261 5261 1693 5389 5389 1701 5611 5611 1714 7000 7000 1716 5611 5611 1733 5118 5118 1734 5118 5118 1740 4816 5659 5659 1750 5261 5261 1758 4816 5659 5659 1762 4879 4879 1764 5118 5118 1778 4386 4386 1791 4322 4322 1801 5532 5532 1808 7000 7000 1812 3369 3369 1813 3689 3689 1817 4790 4790 1819 3925 3925 1821 3623 3623 1824 3960 3960 1825 3656 3656 1831 3891 3891 1846 3460 3460 1851 3903 3903 1852 5642 5642 1872 3712 3712 1876 5697 5697 1878 7000 7000 1880 3756 3756 1881 5280 5280 1882 4615 4615 1897 3590 3590 1910 4300 4300 1918 3857 3857 1944 3600 3600 1953 3800 3800 1968 3890 3890 1972 3850 3850 1978 4150 4150 1980 3570 3570 1986 3525 3525 1990 3505 3505 1994 4900 4900 1999 5090 5590 2007 4800 5400 2013 3879 4797