People living in affected regions in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia have been evacuated from their homes.
But, the impact of climate change means that extreme weather, including heavy rain and flooding, will become more frequent.
Climate change should not be a side issue, but be actively pursued, along with flood protection. Looking at economic and environmental interests separately is not useful. They have asked all supporters to check with the local disaster management area for details on how they can support efforts.
A curfew was in place overnight because of the risk of looting. Local officials said those unable to leave should move to the upper floors of their buildings. The Meuse river, which flows through the city, stabilised on Friday morning, with small overflows in some areas.
Scientists have condemned politicians for failing to protect their citizens from extreme weather events such as the floods in northern Europe and the US heat dome. They have been predicting for years that summer rainfall and heatwaves would become more intense due to human-induced climate change. Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading, said: "The deaths and destruction across Europe as a result of flooding is a tragedy that should have been avoided.
Scientists say governments must both cut the CO2 emissions that are fuelling extreme events, AND prepare for more extreme weather.
Yet in the UK - hit by severe flooding on Monday - the government's advisory climate change committee recently told ministers the nation was even worse prepared for extreme weather than it was five years ago. It said the government was keeping only a fifth of its pledges to cut emissions. And only this week the UK government told people that they don't need to reduce flying because technology will solve the emissions problem - a notion that most experts consider a gamble.
The Netherlands has reported no casualties but thousands of people in towns and villages along the Meuse river have been urged to leave their houses quickly. The river running through the Swiss capital Bern burst its banks, flowing at a record rate of cubic metres a second on Friday. Lake Lucerne is flooding into the town and people in Basel have been told to keep well away from the River Rhine.
There is also the risk of mud and rock slides in the Alps as the flood waters run off. At the end of the century average half-year discharge is projected to increase in the winter and decrease in the summer. High winter discharge is projected to increase both in and with respect to Due to deficits in methods, no statements could be made for the upstream stations Basel, Maxau and Worms Again, due to deficits in methods, no statements could be made for the upstream stations Basel, Maxau and Worms The annual number of reported flood disasters in Europe increased considerably in 1.
A disaster was defined here as causing the death of at least ten people, or affecting seriously at least people, or requiring immediate emergency assistance. The total number of reported victims was during the whole period, the most deadly floods occurred in Spain in victims , in Italy in victims and in Russia in victims 2.
Throughout the 20 th century as a whole flood-related deaths have been either stable or decreasing while economic burdens of flooding and related societal disruptions have become decidedly worse. The reported damages also increased. Results show no detectable sign of human-induced climate change in normalised flood losses in Europe. There is evidence that societal change and economic development are the principal factors responsible for the increasing losses from natural disasters to date 5.
Policy makers should not expect an unequivocal answer to questions concerning the linkage between flood-disaster losses and anthropogenic climate change, as this field will very likely remain an important area of research for years to come. Longer time-series of losses are necessary for more conclusive results 6. In the IPCC concluded that there is limited to medium evidence available to assess climate-driven observed changes in the magnitude and frequency of floods at a regional scale because the available instrumental records of floods at gauge stations are limited in space and time, and because of confounding effects of changes in land use and engineering.
Furthermore, there is low agreement in this evidence, and thus overall low confidence at the global scale regarding even the sign of these changes. There is low confidence due to limited evidence that anthropogenic climate change has affected the magnitude or frequency of floods, though it has detectably influenced several components of the hydrological cycle such as precipitation and snowmelt medium confidence to high confidence , which may impact flood trends Hydrological data series do not indicate clear upward trends in the frequency and magnitude of floods in Europe.
The direct anthropogenic causes include land use change, river channel modifications and increased activities in areas vulnerable to floods. Thousands of square kilometres of impermeable surfaces have been created, coastal urbanization has been extensive. The overall impact of these changes probably exceeds the impact of trends in meteorological variables in today's Europe 8. In western and central Europe, annual and monthly mean river flow series appear to have been stationary over the 20th century 9.
In mountainous regions of central Europe, however, the main identified trends are an increase in annual river flow due to increases in winter, spring and autumn river flow.
In southern parts of Europe, a slightly decreasing trend in annual river flow has been observed In the Nordic countries, snowmelt floods have occurred earlier because of warmer winters In Portugal, changed precipitation patterns have resulted in larger and more frequent floods during autumn but a decline in the number of floods in winter and spring Comparisons of historic climate variability with flood records suggest, however, that many of the changes observed in recent decades could have resulted from natural climatic variation.
Changes in the terrestrial system, such as urbanisation, deforestation, loss of natural floodplain storage, as well as river and flood management have also strongly affected flood occurrence In the IPCC concluded that considerable uncertainty remains in the projections of flood changes, especially regarding their magnitude and frequency. They concluded, therefore, that there is low confidence due to limited evidence in future changes in flood magnitude and frequency derived from river discharge simulations.
Projected precipitation and temperature changes imply possible changes in floods, although overall there is low confidence in projections of changes in fluvial floods. Confidence is low due to limited evidence and because the causes of regional changes are complex, although there are exceptions to this statement. There is medium confidence based on physical reasoning that projected increases in heavy rainfall would contribute to increases in rain-generated local flooding, in some catchments or regions.
Earlier spring peak flows in snowmelt- and glacier-fed rivers are very likely , but there is low confidence in their projected magnitude Although there is as yet no proof that the extreme flood events of recent years are a direct consequence of climate change, they may give an indication of what can be expected: the frequency and intensity of floods in large parts of Europe is projected to increase In particular, flash and urban floods, triggered by local intense precipitation events, are likely to be more frequent throughout Europe Flood hazard will also probably increase during wetter and warmer winters, with more frequent rain and less frequent snow Even in regions where mean river flows will drop significantly, as in the Iberian Peninsula, the projected increase in precipitation intensity and variability may cause more floods.
Earlier snowmelt and reduced summer precipitation will reduce river flows in summer 18 , when demand is typically highest. For the period the general feature is a decrease of extreme flows in areas where snowmelt floods are dominating in the present climate. An increase by similar amount is projected in large areas elsewhere, whereas a mixed pattern is likely in Sweden, Germany and the Iberian Peninsula 2.
Losses from river flood disasters in Europe have worsened in recent years and climate change is expected to exacerbate this trend. The PESETA study, for example, estimates that by the s, some million Europeans could be affected each year compared with million in the period between and From an assessment of the implications of climate change for future flood damage and people exposed by floods in Europe it was concluded that the expected annual damages EAD and expected annual population exposed EAP will see an increase in several countries in Europe in the coming century Most notable increases in flood losses across the different climate futures are projected for countries in Western Europe Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom , as well as for Hungary and Slovakia.
A consistent decrease across the scenarios is projected for northern countries Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. Changes in EAP reflect well the changes in EAD, and for EU27 an additional , to nearly , people are expected to be affected by flooding yearly, depending on the scenario.
The authors stress that the monetary estimates of flood damage are uncertain because of several assumptions underlying the calculations only two emission scenarios, only two regional climate models driven by two general circulation models, no discounting of inflation to future damages, no growth in exposed values and population or adjustments, estimates of flood protection standards ; the results are indicative of changes in flood damage due to climate change, however, rather than estimates of absolute values of flood damage Annual river flow is projected to decrease in southern and south-eastern Europe and increase in northern and north-eastern Europe Strong changes are also projected in the seasonality of river flows, with large differences across Europe.
Winter and spring river flows are projected to increase in most parts of Europe, except for the most southern and south-eastern regions. In summer and autumn, river flows are projected to decrease in most of Europe, except for northern and north-eastern regions where autumn flows are projected to increase Predicted reductions in summer flow are greatest for southern and south-eastern Europe, in line with the predicted increase in the frequency and severity of drought in this region. Climate-related changes in flood frequency are complex and dependent on the flood generating mechanism e.
Hence, in the regions where floods can be caused by several possible mechanisms, the net effect of climate change on flood risk is not trivial and a general and ubiquitously valid, flat-rate statement on change in flood risk cannot be made Flood risk tends to increase over many areas owing to a range of climatic and non-climatic impacts, whose relative importance is site-specific.
Flood risk is controlled by a number of non-climatic factors, such as changes in economic and social systems, and in terrestrial systems hydrological systems and ecosystems. Land-use changes, which induce land-cover changes, control the rainfall-runoff relations in the drainage basin. Deforestation, urbanization and reduction of wetlands diminish the available water-storage capacity and increase the runoff coefficient, leading to growth in the flow amplitude and reduction of the time-to-peak.
Furthermore, in many regions, people have been encroaching into, and developing, flood-prone areas, thereby increasing the damage potential. Prof Messari-Becker says that could mean deeper foundations along with ground floors of buildings designed for water to flow through safely in the event of a flood, plus higher and stronger bridges. She is an advocate of the "sponge city" urban planning concept , using measures such as roof gardens, permeable pavements and urban forests to absorb water rather than traditional concrete dams, dykes and drainage facilities to carry it away.
Climate change is clearly challenging humanity's resilience and resourcefulness but Linda Kleber, now running a new restaurant on higher ground, is hopeful. Wir schaffen das. We will make it. Europe's devastating floods in maps and charts. Catania: Storm floods engulf Sicilian city centre. The German town of Erftstadt-Blessem was among those worst hit by the July floods. Image source, Kai Kleber. Your device may not support this visualisation. Rebuilding the Ahr valley infrastructure will be time-consuming and expensive.
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