Drought and flood statistics in regulated catchments: a multivariate perspective

The impacts of droughts and floods can be particularly severe if they occur in areas with high human presence or if they affect a large region. This project aims to enhance our understanding of the statistical behavior of multivariate hydrologic extremes in a global change context where streamflow is increasingly regulated through reservoir operation or water abstraction. More specifically, it aims to

• create a data set on hydrologic extremes and human flow-influences for the Central European Alps;
• quantify the impact of reservoir operation and lake regulation on multivariate statistical flood and drought characteristics including multiple and regional characteristics, event types, and the temporal clustering behavior of hydrologic extremes; and
• determine the effect of flow regulations on local and regional flood hazard estimates.

This project is financed by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).