Final Symposium of the DFG Research Unit „Space-time Dynamics of Extreme Floods” (SPATE)
When: 23 April 2023, 8:30-17:30
Where: Festsaal of TU Vienna, first floor, Karlsplatz 13, 1040 Vienna, Austria
Starting at 1st of June 2017 and ending 31st of May 2023, the Research Unit SPATE funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) explored extreme flood processes. The main objective was to understand the processes leading to extreme river floods and how these evolve in space and time. Over six years, this Research Unit followed the natural and coherent approach of exploring extreme flood processes along the following axes of scales:
(i) Event scale processes: Here the hydrometeorological causes of the most extreme floods, the interactions of the component processes and how the processes change when moving from small to extreme events were explored.
(ii) Spatial (regional) scale variability: The spatial relationships of river flooding as a result of the interplay of the spatial patterns of atmospheric, watershed, and river system processes were analyzed.
(iii) Temporal (decadal) scale variability: Periodic climatic processes may lead to long-term variability of floods over decades and centuries. Observed flood changes were formally attributed to their drivers and future changes in a process-based way were anticipated.
(iv) Uncertainty and predictability: Given the many non-linearities involved in the generation of extreme floods, predicting them in deterministic and probabilistic frameworks involves a range of uncertainties. By combining weather generators with hydrological models and new flood statistical tools, these uncertainties were characterized.
The main results of these research activities, which were derived in a close cooperation of seven research institutes in Germany and Austria will be presented and discussed in the first part of this meeting.
The second part gives an outlook on promising developments in flood research that will expand the knowledge base on flood events and their impacts in the coming years. Experienced as well as young scientists from different parts of the world present their developments and approaches. During a final panel discussion, all participants are invited to share their ideas.
As a result of this event, young scientists in particular should be encouraged to address the extremely challenging topic of extreme floods and to make their contributions to flood research here in the next ten years.
We look forward to contributions from Manuela Brunner (ETH Zurich), Attilio Castellarin (University of Bologna), Pedro Chaffe (University of Santa Catarina), Christian Onof (Imperial College London), Ashish Sharma (University of New-South Wales), Jery Stedinger (Cornell University), Richard Vogel (Tufts University) and Elena Volpi (University of Roma Tre).
The programme for our final symposium can be found here.
The registration is closed.
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Last update: Feb 13, 2023
