TY - JOUR A1 - Samprogna Mohor, Guilherme A1 - Hudson, Paul A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - A comparison of factors driving flood losses in households affected by different flood types JF - Water resources research N2 - Flood loss data collection and modeling are not standardized, and previous work has indicated that losses from different flood types (e.g., riverine and groundwater) may follow different driving forces. However, different flood types may occur within a single flood event, which is known as a compound flood event. Therefore, we aimed to identify statistical similarities between loss-driving factors across flood types and test whether the corresponding losses should be modeled separately. In this study, we used empirical data from 4,418 respondents from four survey campaigns studying households in Germany that experienced flooding. These surveys sought to investigate several features of the impact process (hazard, socioeconomic, preparedness, and building characteristics, as well as flood type). While the level of most of these features differed across flood type subsamples (e.g., degree of preparedness), they did so in a nonregular pattern. A variable selection process indicates that besides hazard and building characteristics, information on property-level preparedness was also selected as a relevant predictor of the loss ratio. These variables represent information, which is rarely adopted in loss modeling. Models shall be refined with further data collection and other statistical methods. To save costs, data collection efforts should be steered toward the most relevant predictors to enhance data availability and increase the statistical power of results. Understanding that losses from different flood types are driven by different factors is a crucial step toward targeted data collection and model development and will finally clarify conditions that allow us to transfer loss models in space and time.
Key Points
Survey data of flood-affected households show different concurrent flood types, undermining the use of a single-flood-type loss model Thirteen variables addressing flood hazard, the building, and property level preparedness are significant predictors of the building loss ratio Flood type-specific models show varying significance across the predictor variables, indicating a hindrance to model transferability KW - Loss modeling KW - Riverine floods KW - Surface floods KW - Groundwater KW - Levee KW - breaches KW - Compound flood event Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025943 SN - 0043-1397 SN - 1944-7973 VL - 56 IS - 4 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hudson, Paul T1 - A comparison of definitions of affordability for flood risk adaption measures BT - a case study of current and future risk-based flood insurance premiums in Europe JF - Mitigation and adaptation strategies for global change : an international journal devoted to scientific, engineering, socio-economic and policy responses to environmental change N2 - Risk-based insurance is a commonly proposed and discussed flood risk adaptation mechanism in policy debates across the world such as in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. However, both risk-based premiums and growing risk pose increasing difficulties for insurance to remain affordable. An empirical concept of affordability is required as the affordability of adaption strategies is an important concern for policymakers, yet such a concept is not often examined. Therefore, a robust metric with a commonly acceptable affordability threshold is required. A robust metric allows for a previously normative concept to be quantified in monetary terms, and in this way, the metric is rendered more suitable for integration into public policy debates. This paper investigates the degree to which risk-based flood insurance premiums are unaffordable in Europe. In addition, this paper compares the outcomes generated by three different definitions of unaffordability in order to investigate the most robust definition. In doing so, the residual income definition was found to be the least sensitive to changes in the threshold. While this paper focuses on Europe, the selected definition can be employed elsewhere in the world and across adaption measures in order to develop a common metric for indicating the potential unaffordability problem. KW - Flood risk KW - Insurance KW - Affordability KW - Climate change KW - Adaptation KW - Public policy Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-017-9769-5 SN - 1381-2386 SN - 1573-1596 VL - 23 IS - 7 SP - 1019 EP - 1038 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Spekkers, Matthieu A1 - Roezer, Viktor A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - ten Veldhuis, Marie-Claire A1 - Kreibich, Heidi T1 - A comparative survey of the impacts of extreme rainfall in two international case studies JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-1337-2017 SN - 1561-8633 VL - 17 SP - 1337 EP - 1355 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - van zanten, Boris T. A1 - Zasada, Ingo A1 - Koetse, Mark J. A1 - Ungaro, Fabrizio A1 - Hafner, Kati A1 - Verburg, Peter H. T1 - A comparative approach to assess the contribution of landscape features to aesthetic and recreational values in agricultural landscapes JF - Ecosystem Services : Science, Policy and Practice N2 - The importance of cultural ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes is increasingly recognized as agricultural scale enlargement and abandonment affect aesthetic and recreational values of agricultural landscapes. Landscape preference studies addressing these type of values often yield context-specific outcomes, limiting the applicability of their outcomes in landscape policy. Our approach measures the relative importance of landscape features across agricultural landscapes. This approach was applied in the agricultural landscapes of Winterswijk, The Netherlands (n=191) and the Markische Schweiz, Germany (n=113) among visitors in the agricultural landscape. We set up a parallel designed choice experiment, using regionally specific, photorealistic visualizations of four comparable landscape attributes. In the Dutch landscape visitors highly value hedgerows and tree lines, whereas groups of trees and crop diversity are highly valued in the German landscape. Furthermore, we find that differences in relative preference for landscape attributes are, to some extent, explained by socio-cultural background variables such as education level and affinity with agriculture of the visitors. This approach contributes to a better understanding of the cross-regional variation of aesthetic and recreational values and how these values relate to characteristics of the agricultural landscape, which could support the integration of cultural services in landscape policy. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Cultural ecosystem services KW - Landscape preferences KW - Comparative study KW - Landscape aesthetics KW - Landscape values KW - Agricultural landscape Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.11.011 SN - 2212-0416 VL - 17 SP - 87 EP - 98 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Salazar, S. A1 - Frances, F. A1 - Komma, J. A1 - Blume, Theresa A1 - Francke, Till A1 - Bronstert, Axel A1 - Blöschl, Günter T1 - A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of flood management measures based on the concept of "retaining water in the landscape" in different European hydro-climatic regions JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - In this paper, we analyse the effectiveness of flood management measures based on the concept known as "retaining water in the landscape". The investigated measures include afforestation, micro-ponds and small-reservoirs. A comparative and model-based methodological approach has been developed and applied for three meso-scale catchments located in different European hydro-climatological regions: Poyo (184 km(2)) in the Spanish Mediterranean, Upper Iller (954 km(2)) in the German Alps and Kamp (621 km(2)) in Northeast-Austria representing the Continental hydro-climate. This comparative analysis has found general similarities in spite of the particular differences among studied areas. In general terms, the flood reduction through the concept of "retaining water in the landscape" depends on the following factors: the storage capacity increase in the catchment resulting from such measures, the characteristics of the rainfall event, the antecedent soil moisture condition and the spatial distribution of such flood management measures in the catchment. In general, our study has shown that, this concept is effective for small and medium events, but almost negligible for the largest and less frequent floods: this holds true for all different hydro-climatic regions, and with different land-use, soils and morphological settings. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-12-3287-2012 SN - 1561-8633 VL - 12 IS - 11 SP - 3287 EP - 3306 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maslin, Mark A1 - Trauth, Martin H. A1 - Christensen, B. T1 - A changing climate for human evolution Y1 - 2005 SN - 0016-8556 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lappe, Michael A1 - Kallmeyer, Jens T1 - A cell extraction method for oily sediments JF - Frontiers in microbiology N2 - Hydrocarbons can be found in many different habitats and represent an important carbon source for microbes. As fossil fuels, they are also an important economical resource and through natural seepage or accidental release they can be major pollutants. DNA-specific stains and molecular probes bind to hydrocarbons, causing massive background fluorescence, thereby hampering cell enumeration. The cell extraction procedure of Kallmeyer et al. (2008) separates the cells from the sediment matrix. In principle, this technique can also be used to separate cells from oily sediments, but it was not originally optimized for this application. Here we present a modified extraction method in which the hydrocarbons are removed prior to cell extraction. Due to the reduced background fluorescence the microscopic image becomes clearer, making cell identification, and enumeration much easier. Consequently, the resulting cell counts from oily samples treated according to our new protocol are significantly higher than those treated according to Kallmeyer et al. (2008). We tested different amounts of a variety of solvents for their ability to remove hydrocarbons and found that n-hexane and in samples containing more mature oils methanol, delivered the best results. However, as solvents also tend to lyse cells, it was important to find the optimum solvent to sample ratio, at which hydrocarbon extraction is maximized and cell lysis minimized. A volumetric ratio of 1:2-1:5 between a formalin-fixed sediment slurry and solvent delivered highest cell counts. Extraction efficiency was around 30-50% and was checked on both oily samples spiked with known amounts of E. coli cells and oil-free samples amended with fresh and biodegraded oil. The method provided reproducible results on samples containing very different kinds of oils with regard to their degree of biodegradation. For strongly biodegraded oil MeOH turned out to be the most appropriate solvent, whereas for less biodegraded samples n-hexane delivered best results. KW - cell enumeration KW - hydrocarbons KW - cell separation KW - subsurface microbiology Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2011.00233 SN - 1664-302X VL - 2 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - THES A1 - Swierczynski, Tina T1 - A 7000 yr runoff chronology from varved sediments of Lake Mondsee (Upper Austria) T1 - Eine 7000-jährige Abflusschronologie anhand von warvierten Sedimenten des Mondsees (Oberösterreich) N2 - The potential increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme floods is currently discussed in terms of global warming and the intensification of the hydrological cycle. The profound knowledge of past natural variability of floods is of utmost importance in order to assess flood risk for the future. Since instrumental flood series cover only the last ~150 years, other approaches to reconstruct historical and pre-historical flood events are needed. Annually laminated (varved) lake sediments are meaningful natural geoarchives because they provide continuous records of environmental changes > 10000 years down to a seasonal resolution. Since lake basins additionally act as natural sediment traps, the riverine sediment supply, which is preserved as detrital event layers in the lake sediments, can be used as a proxy for extreme discharge events. Within my thesis I examined a ~ 8.50 m long sedimentary record from the pre-Alpine Lake Mondsee (Northeast European Alps), which covered the last 7000 years. This sediment record consists of calcite varves and intercalated detrital layers, which range in thickness from 0.05 to 32 mm. Detrital layer deposition was analysed by a combined method of microfacies analysis via thin sections, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), μX-ray fluorescence (μXRF) scanning and magnetic susceptibility. This approach allows characterizing individual detrital event layers and assigning a corresponding input mechanism and catchment. Based on varve counting and controlled by 14C age dates, the main goals of this thesis are (i) to identify seasonal runoff processes, which lead to significant sediment supply from the catchment into the lake basin and (ii) to investigate flood frequency under changing climate boundary conditions. This thesis follows a line of different time slices, presenting an integrative approach linking instrumental and historical flood data from Lake Mondsee in order to evaluate the flood record inferred from Lake Mondsee sediments. The investigation of eleven short cores covering the last 100 years reveals the abundance of 12 detrital layers. Therein, two types of detrital layers are distinguished by grain size, geochemical composition and distribution pattern within the lake basin. Detrital layers, which are enriched in siliciclastic and dolomitic material, reveal sediment supply from the Flysch sediments and Northern Calcareous Alps into the lake basin. These layers are thicker in the northern lake basin (0.1-3.9 mm) and thinner in the southern lake basin (0.05-1.6 mm). Detrital layers, which are enriched in dolomitic components forming graded detrital layers (turbidites), indicate the provenance from the Northern Calcareous Alps. These layers are generally thicker (0.65-32 mm) and are solely recorded within the southern lake basin. In comparison with instrumental data, thicker graded layers result from local debris flow events in summer, whereas thin layers are deposited during regional flood events in spring/summer. Extreme summer floods as reported from flood layer deposition are principally caused by cyclonic activity from the Mediterranean Sea, e.g. July 1954, July 1997 and August 2002. During the last two millennia, Lake Mondsee sediments reveal two significant flood intervals with decadal-scale flood episodes, during the Dark Ages Cold Period (DACP) and the transition from the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) into the Little Ice Age (LIA) suggesting a linkage of transition to climate cooling and summer flood recurrences in the Northeastern Alps. In contrast, intermediate or decreased flood episodes appeared during the MWP and the LIA. This indicates a non-straightforward relationship between temperature and flood recurrence, suggesting higher cyclonic activity during climate transition in the Northeast Alps. The 7000-year flood chronology reveals 47 debris flows and 269 floods, with increased flood activity shifting around 3500 and 1500 varve yr BP (varve yr BP = varve years before present, before present = AD 1950). This significant increase in flood activity shows a coincidence with millennial-scale climate cooling that is reported from main Alpine glacier advances and lower tree lines in the European Alps since about 3300 cal. yr BP (calibrated years before present). Despite relatively low flood occurrence prior to 1500 varve yr BP, floods at Lake Mondsee could have also influenced human life in early Neolithic lake dwellings (5750-4750 cal. yr BP). While the first lake dwellings were constructed on wetlands, the later lake dwellings were built on piles in the water suggesting an early flood risk adaptation of humans and/or a general change of the Late Neolithic Culture of lake-dwellers because of socio-economic reasons. However, a direct relationship between the final abandonment of the lake dwellings and higher flood frequencies is not evidenced. N2 - Ein verstärktes Auftreten von Hochwassern, sowohl in ihrer Häufigkeit als auch in ihrer Frequenz, wird im Zuge der Klimaerwärmung und einer möglichen Intensivierung des hydrologischen Kreislaufs diskutiert. Die Kenntnis über die natürliche Variabilität von Hochwasserereignissen ist dabei eine grundlegende Voraussetzung, um die Hochwassergefahr für die Zukunft abschätzen zu können. Da instrumentelle Hochwasserzeitreihen meist nur die letzten 150 Jahre abbilden sind andere Methoden erforderlich, um das Auftreten von historischen und prä-historischen Hochwassern festzustellen. Jährlich laminierte (warvierte) Seesedimente sind bedeutende natürliche Archive, denn sie liefern kontinuierliche Zeitreihen > 10000 Jahre mit einer bis zur saisonalen Auflösung. Seebecken stellen natürliche Sedimentfallen dar, wobei eingetragenes Flusssediment in den Seesedimenten als eine distinkte detritische Lage aufgezeichnet wird, und daher zur Rekonstruktion von extremen Abflussereignissen genutzt werden. Im Rahmen meiner Doktorarbeit habe ich einen 8.50 m langen Sedimentkern aus dem Mondsee (Nordostalpen) untersucht, welcher die letzten 7000 Jahre abdeckt. Dieser Sedimentkern besteht aus Kalzitwarven und eingeschalteten detritischen Lagen mit einer Mächtigkeit von 0.05-32 mm. Detritische Lagen wurden mit Hilfe einer kombinierten Methode untersucht: Mikrofaziesanalyse, Rasterelektronenmikroskopie, Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyse (µXRF) und magnetische Suszeptibilität. Dieser Ansatz ermöglicht die Charakterisierung der einzelnen detritischen Lagen bezüglich der Eintragsprozesse und die Lokalisierung des Einzugsgebietes. Auf Grundlage der Warvenzählung und 14C Datierungen sind die wichtigsten Ziele dieser Arbeit: (i) die Identifizierung der Eintragsprozesse, welche zu einem Sedimenteintrag vom Einzugsgebiet bis in den See führen und (ii) die Rekonstruktion der Hochwasserfrequenz unter veränderten Klimabedingungen. Diese Arbeit zeigt eine Untersuchung auf verschiedenen Zeitscheiben, wobei instrumentelle und historische Daten genutzt werden, um die Aufzeichnung von pre-historischen Hochwasser in den Mondseesedimenten besser zu verstehen. Innerhalb der letzten 100 Jahre wurden zwölf Abflussereignisse aufgezeichnet. Zwei Typen von detritschen Lagen können anhand von Korngröße, geochemischer Zusammensetzung und des Verteilungsmusters unterschieden werden. Detritische Lagen, welche aus siliziklastischen und dolomitischen Material bestehen, zeigen eine Sedimentherkunft vom Teileinzugsgebiet des Flysch (nördliches Einzugsgebiet) und der Nördlichen Kalkalpen (südliches Teileinzugsgebiet) auf. Diese Lagen sind im Nördlichen Becken mächtiger (0.1-3.9 mm) als im südlichen Seebecken (0.05-1.6 mm). Detritische Lagen, welche nur aus dolomitischem Material bestehen und Turbititlagen aufzeigen (0.65-32 mm), weisen auf eine Herkunft aus den Nördlichen Kalkalpen hin. Im Vergleich mit instrumentellen Zeitreihen, stammen die mächtigeren Lagen von lokalen Murereignissen im Sommer und feinere Eintragslagen von regionalen Frühjahrs- und Sommerhochwassern. Extreme Sommerhochwasser am Mondsee werden hauptsächlich durch Zyklonen vom Mittelmeer ausgelöst, z.B. Juli 1954, Juli 1997 und August 2002. Die Untersuchung des langen Sedimentkerns vom Mondsee zeigt während der letzten 2000 Jahre signifikante Hochwasserintervalle mit dekadischen Hochwasserepisoden während der Völkerwanderungszeit und im Übergang vom Mittelalter in die Kleine Eiszeit. Dies weist auf eine Verknüpfung von Abkühlungsphasen und Sommerhochwassern im Nordostalpenraum hin. Während der Mittelalterlichen Wärmephase und in der Kleinen Eiszeit kam es jedoch zu einer geringeren Hochwasseraktivität. Dies zeigt einen komplexen Zusammenhang von Temperaturentwicklung und Hochwasseraktivität in den Nordostalpen, mit einer erhöhten Zyklonenaktivät in den Übergängen von wärmeren zu kälteren Phasen. Während der letzten 7000 Jahre wurden 47 Muren und 269 Hochwasser aufgezeichnet, wobei es eine signifikante Änderung mit erhöhter Häufigkeit um 3500 und 1500 Warvenjahre v. h. gab (v.h. = vor heute = AD 1950). Diese signifikante Änderung stimmt mit einem langfristigem Abkühlungstrend überein, welcher durch alpine Gletschervorstöße und das Absinken von Baumgrenzen seit etwa 3300 Warvenjahre v.h. berichtet wird. Trotz relativ geringer Hochwasseraktivität um 1500 Warvenjahre v.h., könnte das Auftreten von Hochwasser auch das Leben Menschen in Neolithischen Pfahlbausiedlungen (5750-4750 cal. yr BP) beeinflusst haben. Während die ersten Pfahlbauten noch als Feuchtbodensiedlungen am Land entstanden, wurden spätere Siedlungen eventuell als Anpassung an stark schwankenden Seewasserspiegeln auf Pfählen im Wasser gebaut und/oder zeigen eine allgemeine Veränderung der Siedlungsaktivitäten der Neolithischen Pfahlbaukultur an, aufgrund sozio-ökonomischer Veränderungen. Ein direkter Zusammenhang zwischen dem Verlassen der Pfahlbausiedlungen und einer erhöhten Hochwasseraktivität konnte jedoch nicht festgestellt werden. KW - Mondsee KW - Paläohochwasser KW - Seesedimente KW - Warven KW - Klimarekonstruktion KW - Mondsee KW - Paleofloods KW - Lake sediments KW - Warves KW - Climate reconstruction Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-66702 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weidle, Christian A1 - Wiesenberg, Lars A1 - El-Sharkawy, Amr A1 - Krüger, Frank A1 - Scharf, Andreas A1 - Agard, Philippe A1 - Meier, Thomas T1 - A 3-D crustal shear wave velocity model and Moho map below the Semail Ophiolite, eastern Arabia JF - Geophysical journal international N2 - The Semail Ophiolite in eastern Arabia is the largest and best-exposed slice of oceanic lithosphere on land. Detailed knowledge of the tectonic evolution of the shallow crust, in particular during and after ophiolite obduction in Late Cretaceous times is contrasted by few constraints on physical and compositional properties of the middle and lower continental crust below the obducted units. The role of inherited, pre-obduction crustal architecture remains therefore unaccounted for in our understanding of crustal evolution and the present-day geology. Based on seismological data acquired during a 27-month campaign in northern Oman, Ambient Seismic Noise Tomography and Receiver Function analysis provide for the first time a 3-D radially anisotropic shear wave velocity (V-S) model and a consistent Moho map below the iconic Semail Ophiolite. The model highlights deep crustal boundaries that segment the eastern Arabian basement in two distinct units. The previously undescribed Western Jabal Akhdar Zone separates Arabian crust with typical continental properties and a thickness of similar to 40-45 km in the northwest from a compositionally different terrane in the southeast that is interpreted as a terrane accreted during the Pan-African orogeny in Neoproterozoic times. East of the Ibra Zone, another deep crustal boundary, crustal thickness decreases to 30-35 km and very high lower crustal V-S suggest large-scale mafic intrusions into, and possible underplating of the Arabian continental crust that occurred most likely during Permian breakup of Pangea. Mafic reworking is sharply bounded by the (upper crustal) Semail Gap Fault Zone, northwest of which no such high velocities are found in the crust. Topography of the Oman Mountains is supported by a mild crustal root and Moho depth below the highest topography, the Jabal Akhdar Dome, is similar to 42 km. Radial anisotropy is robustly resolved in the upper crust and aids in discriminating dipping allochthonous units from autochthonous sedimentary rocks that are indistinguishable by isotropic V-S alone. Lateral thickness variations of the ophiolite highlight the Haylayn Ophiolite Massif on the northern flank of Jabal Akhdar Dome and the Hawasina Window as the deepest reaching unit. Ophiolite thickness is similar to 10 km in the southern and northern massifs, and <= 5 km elsewhere. KW - Composition and structure of the continental crust KW - Asia KW - Body waves KW - Seismic anisotropy KW - Seismic tomography KW - Surface waves and free oscillations Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac223 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 231 IS - 2 SP - 817 EP - 834 PB - Oxford University Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Freybourger, Marion A1 - Krüger, Frank A1 - Achauer, Ulrich T1 - A 22 degree long seismic profile for the study of the top D" Y1 - 1999 ER -