In 2009-2014, representatives of various scientific and research institutions from 25 European countries, including scientists from Hydrology laboratory at Lithuanian Energy Institute, joined COST action ES0901.
The Directive of the European Parliament on the assessment and management of floods (Directive 2007/60/EC) requires the policy makers and operational flood risk managers to consider the effect of environmental change (including climate change) on flood events and invites to develop mathematical modelling methods of a new generation in order to determine the impact of these changes. Physical processes, causing floods in different parts of Europe, are different and not homogeneous within national or administrative boundaries. FloodFreq aimed at comparison and evaluation of different methods for flood frequency estimation under the various climatologic and geographic conditions found in Europe, and different levels of data availability. The main focus of the action is on scientific and technological issues of flood frequency estimation.
The scientific benefits included: (i) creation of a pan-European dataset, which provided a unique opportunity to study regional flood hydrology without the constraints on data availability and heterogeneity imposed by national boundaries; (ii) improved knowledge of the performance of different methods for flood frequency estimation across Europe; (iii) an assessment of using more sophisticated process-based modelling (rainfall-runoff modelling); (iv) development of tools for predicting the effect of environmental change (including climate change) on the characteristics of extreme flood events.
The outputs from FloodFreq were disseminated to academics, professionals involved in operational flood risk management from private and public institutions, and relevant policy makers from national and international regulatory bodies. This Action enabled cooperation between researchers involved in nationally funded research projects allowing a more efficient use of European flood research funding.
LEI activities in the Project
Representatives of Lithuania were involved in the activities of the COST action Management Committee and the two working groups: WG2 “Assessment of statistical methods for flood frequency estimation” and WG4 “Impact of environmental change on flood frequency estimates”. In the first year, review about existing statistical methods for flood-frequency analysis and flood data availability (WG2) and applied methods for detecting trends in time series of hydrological extremes and non-stationary flood frequency analysis (WG4) in Lithuania was prepared. Next, a report on historical river flood data in Lithuania was presented. River runoff modelling in the selected river catchments in each represented country (the Merkys River catchment was selected as a case study from Lithuania) was carried out according to the same methodology: 15 climate models and 8 downscaling methods. On-going and planned further scientific work has been discussed in regular meetings. The outcome of the performed research was presented in two international conferences: in Greece (Volos) and Germany (Potsdam) organised by FloodFreq action.
Coordinator: COST Representation in Brussels, Belgium, ESSEM scientific supervisor Carine Petit
Partners:
- Austria, Mr Jose Luis SALINAS
- Belgium, Prof Patrick WILLEMS
- Belgium, Prof Benjamin DEWALS
- Bulgaria, Ms Snezhanka BALABANOVA
- Bulgaria, Prof Neyko Mateev NEYKOV
- Cyprus, Dr Antonis TOUMAZIS
- Cyprus, Mr Eftychios MALIKIDES
- Czech Republic, Dr Sarka D. BLAZKOVA
- Czech Republic, Dr Václav DAVID
- Denmark, Dr Karsten ARNBJERG-NIELSEN
- Denmark, Dr Henrik MADSEN
- Finland, Prof Jukka KÄYHKÖ
- Finland, Dr Bertel VEHVILÄINEN
- France, Dr Michel LANG
- France, Mr Emmanuel PAQUET
- Germany, Prof Bruno MERZ
- Greece, Prof Athanasios LOUKAS
- Greece, Dr Andreas EFSTRATIADIS
- Hungary, Mr Gábor BÁLINT
- Hungary, Dr Imre BONTA
- Iceland, Prof Sigurdur GARDARSSON
- Iceland, Dr Philippe CROCHET
- Ireland, Mr Oliver NICHOLSON
- Italy, Prof Alberto MONTANARI
- Italy, Dr Antonio LO PORTO
- Latvia, Dr Maris KLAVINS
- Lithuania, Dr Jurate KRIAUCIUNIENE
- Lithuania, Dr Diana SARAUSKIENE
- Netherlands, Dr Paolo REGGIANI
- Netherlands, Dr Pieter VAN GELDER
- Norway, Dr Donna WILSON
- Norway, Dr Deborah LAWRENCE
- Poland, Prof Witold STRUPCZEWSKI
- Poland, Prof Kazimierz BANASIK
- Portugal, Prof Teresa ALBUQUERQUE
- Slovakia, Prof Jan SZOLGAY
- Slovakia, Prof Silvia KOHNOVA
- Slovenia, Dr Mojca SRAJ
- Slovenia, Dr Mira KOBOLD
- Spain, Prof J. Javier DIEZ
- Spain, Dr Luis GARROTE
- Turkey, Dr Gulay ONUSLUEL GUL
- Turkey, Prof Ismail YUCEL
- United Kingdom, Dr Neil MACDONALD
- United Kingdom, Dr Thomas KJELDSEN
Project Team
| Name, surname | Office | phone. | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
LEI Representative |
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| Jūratė Kriaučiūnienė | 426-AK | +37037401962 | Jurate.Kriauciuniene@lei.lt |
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Project Team |
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| Diana Šarauskienė | 425-AK | +37037401969 | Diana.Sarauskiene@lei.lt |