Articles | Volume 23, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-3885-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-3885-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Brief communication: A first hydrological investigation of extreme August 2023 floods in Slovenia, Europe
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Panos Panagos
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy
Leonidas Liakos
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy
Matjaž Mikoš
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Related authors
Francis Matthews, Pasquale Borrelli, Panos Panagos, and Nejc Bezak
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-402, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-402, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
Rainfall erosivity is the main driver of water-induced soil erosion. A ground radar-based data was used to prepare a rainfall erosivity map of Europe. This study shows that the radar-based data products are a valuable solution for estimating large-scale rainfall erosivity, especially in regions with limited station-based precipitation data. A rainfall erosivity ensemble was derived to give first insights into a future avenue for updatable pan-European rainfall erosivity predictions.
Marcos Julien Alexopoulos, Hannes Müller-Thomy, Patrick Nistahl, Mojca Šraj, and Nejc Bezak
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2559–2578, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2559-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2559-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
For rainfall-runoff simulation of a certain area, hydrological models are used, which requires precipitation data and temperature data as input. Since these are often not available as observations, we have tested simulation results from atmospheric models. ERA5-Land and COSMO-REA6 were tested for Slovenian catchments. Both lead to good simulations results. Their usage enables the use of rainfall-runoff simulation in unobserved catchments as a requisite for, e.g., flood protection measures.
Ross Pidoto, Nejc Bezak, Hannes Müller-Thomy, Bora Shehu, Ana Claudia Callau-Beyer, Katarina Zabret, and Uwe Haberlandt
Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 851–863, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-851-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-851-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Erosion is a threat for soils with rainfall as the driving force. The annual rainfall erosivity factor quantifies rainfall impact by analysing high-resolution rainfall time series (~ 5 min). Due to a lack of measuring stations, alternatives for its estimation are analysed in this study. The best results are obtained for regionalisation of the erosivity factor itself. However, the identified minimum of 60-year time series length suggests using rainfall generators as in this study as well.
Nejc Bezak, Pasquale Borrelli, and Panos Panagos
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 1907–1924, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1907-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1907-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Rainfall erosivity is one of the main factors in soil erosion. A satellite-based global map of rainfall erosivity was constructed using data with a 30 min time interval. It was shown that the satellite-based precipitation products are an interesting option for estimating rainfall erosivity, especially in regions with limited ground data. However, ground-based high-frequency precipitation measurements are (still) essential for accurate estimates of rainfall erosivity.
Francis Matthews, Pasquale Borrelli, Panos Panagos, and Nejc Bezak
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-402, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-402, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
Rainfall erosivity is the main driver of water-induced soil erosion. A ground radar-based data was used to prepare a rainfall erosivity map of Europe. This study shows that the radar-based data products are a valuable solution for estimating large-scale rainfall erosivity, especially in regions with limited station-based precipitation data. A rainfall erosivity ensemble was derived to give first insights into a future avenue for updatable pan-European rainfall erosivity predictions.
Francis Matthews, Panos Panagos, Arthur Fendrich, and Gert Verstraeten
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2693, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2693, 2023
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
We assess if a simplistic model can simulate the timing of soil erosion and sediment transport (delivery) in several small agricultural catchments in North-West Europe. The findings show that the loss of soil in fields and the delivery of sediment to streams are related in complex (non-linear) ways through time which impact our knowledge of soil redistribution. Furthermore, we show how adaptations of simplistic models can be used to reveal the missing processes which require future developments.
Marcos Julien Alexopoulos, Hannes Müller-Thomy, Patrick Nistahl, Mojca Šraj, and Nejc Bezak
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2559–2578, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2559-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2559-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
For rainfall-runoff simulation of a certain area, hydrological models are used, which requires precipitation data and temperature data as input. Since these are often not available as observations, we have tested simulation results from atmospheric models. ERA5-Land and COSMO-REA6 were tested for Slovenian catchments. Both lead to good simulations results. Their usage enables the use of rainfall-runoff simulation in unobserved catchments as a requisite for, e.g., flood protection measures.
Arthur Nicolaus Fendrich, Philippe Ciais, Emanuele Lugato, Marco Carozzi, Bertrand Guenet, Pasquale Borrelli, Victoria Naipal, Matthew McGrath, Philippe Martin, and Panos Panagos
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7835–7857, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7835-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7835-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Currently, spatially explicit models for soil carbon stock can simulate the impacts of several changes. However, they do not incorporate the erosion, lateral transport, and deposition (ETD) of soil material. The present work developed ETD formulation, illustrated model calibration and validation for Europe, and presented the results for a depositional site. We expect that our work advances ETD models' description and facilitates their reproduction and incorporation in land surface models.
Ross Pidoto, Nejc Bezak, Hannes Müller-Thomy, Bora Shehu, Ana Claudia Callau-Beyer, Katarina Zabret, and Uwe Haberlandt
Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 851–863, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-851-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-851-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Erosion is a threat for soils with rainfall as the driving force. The annual rainfall erosivity factor quantifies rainfall impact by analysing high-resolution rainfall time series (~ 5 min). Due to a lack of measuring stations, alternatives for its estimation are analysed in this study. The best results are obtained for regionalisation of the erosivity factor itself. However, the identified minimum of 60-year time series length suggests using rainfall generators as in this study as well.
Nejc Bezak, Pasquale Borrelli, and Panos Panagos
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 1907–1924, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1907-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1907-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Rainfall erosivity is one of the main factors in soil erosion. A satellite-based global map of rainfall erosivity was constructed using data with a 30 min time interval. It was shown that the satellite-based precipitation products are an interesting option for estimating rainfall erosivity, especially in regions with limited ground data. However, ground-based high-frequency precipitation measurements are (still) essential for accurate estimates of rainfall erosivity.
Cited articles
Amponsah, W., Ayral, P.-A., Boudevillain, B., Bouvier, C., Braud, I., Brunet, P., Delrieu, G., Didon-Lescot, J.-F., Gaume, E., Lebouc, L., Marchi, L., Marra, F., Morin, E., Nord, G., Payrastre, O., Zoccatelli, D., and Borga, M.: Integrated high-resolution dataset of high-intensity European and Mediterranean flash floods, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1783–1794, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1783-2018, 2018.
ARSO: Report about the extreme rainfall between 3rd and 6th of August 2023, https://meteo.arso.gov.si/uploads/probase/www/climate/text/sl/weather_events/padavine_3-6avg2023-preliminarno.pdf (last access: 7 November 2023), 2023a.
ARSO: Reports about natural hazards, https://meteo.arso.gov.si/met/sl/climate/natural-hazards/ (last access: 7 November 2023), 2023b.
Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO): Hydrological data archive, https://www.arso.gov.si/vode/podatki, last access: 18 December 2023c.
Bertalanič, R., Mojca, D., Andrej, D., Honzak, L., Kobold, M., Kozjek, K., Lokošek, N., Medved, A., Vertačnik, G., Vlahović, Ž., and Žust, A.: Ocena podnebnih sprememb v Sloveniji do konca 21. stoletja, 1st ed., edited by M. Dolinar, Slovenian Environment Agency, Ljubljana, http://www.meteo.si/uploads/probase/www/climate/text/sl/publications/OPS21_Porocilo.pdf (last access: 7 November 2023), 2018.
Bezak, N., Šraj, M., and Mikoš, M.: Copula-based IDF curves and empirical rainfall thresholds for flash floods and rainfall-induced landslides, J. Hydrol., 541, 272–284, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.02.058, 2016.
Bezak, N., Jež, J., Sodnik, J., Jemec Auflič, M., and Mikoš, M.: An extreme May 2018 debris flood case study in northern Slovenia: analysis, modelling, and mitigation, Landslides, 17, 2373–2383, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01325-1, 2020.
Bezak, N., Mikoš, M., Borrelli, P., Liakos, L., and Panagos, P.: An in-depth statistical analysis of the rainstorms erosivity in Europe, Catena, 206, 105577, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105577, 2021.
Caine, N.: The Rainfall Intensity-Duration Control of Shallow Landslides and Debris Flows, Soc. Swedish Ann. Geogr. Geogr. Phys., 62, 23–27, 1980.
CDS Climate Copernicus: Soil moisture gridded data from 1978 to present, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS) [data set], https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/satellite-soil-moisture?tab=overview (last access: 7 November 2023), 2023.
Climate Copernicus: Global sea surface temperature reaches a record high, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS), https://climate.copernicus.eu/global-sea-surface-temperature-reaches-record-high (last access: 7 November 2023), 2023.
Copernicus Emergency Management Service: Floods in Slovenia: EMSR680 – Situational reporting, https://rapidmapping.emergency.copernicus.eu/EMSR680/reporting (last access: 7 November 2023), 2023.
Dolšak, D., Bezak, N., Šraj, M., Dolsak, D., Bezak, N., and Sraj, M.: Temporal characteristics of rainfall events under three climate types in Slovenia, J. Hydrol., 541, 1395–1405, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.08.047, 2016.
Herschy, R. W.: The world's maximum observed floods, Flow Meas. Instrum., 13, 231–235, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0955-5986(02)00054-7, 2002.
Kaitna, R., Prenner, D., Switanek, M., Maraun, D., Stoffel, M., and Hrachowitz, M.: Changes of hydro-meteorological trigger conditions for debris flows in a future alpine climate, Sci. Total Environ., 872, 162227, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162227, 2023.
Marchi, L.: Community Comment 1, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1979-CC1, 2023.
Marchi, L., Borga, M., Preciso, E., Sangati, M., Gaume, E., Bain, V., Delrieu, G., Bonnifait, L., and Pogacnik, N.: Comprehensive post-event survey of a flash flood in Western Slovenia: observation strategy and lessons learned, Hydrol. Process., 23, 3761–3770, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7542, 2009.
Mikoš, M.: Flood hazard in Slovenia and assessment of extreme design floods – Poplavna nevarnost v sloveniji in ocena ekstremnih projektnih poplavnih pretokov, Acta Hydrotechnica, 33, 43–59, https://doi.org/10.15292/acta.hydro.2020.04, 2020.
Mikoš, M.: After 2000 Stože landslide: Part II – Development in landslide disaster risk reduction policy in Slovenia – Po zemeljskem plazu Stože leta 2000: Del II – razvoj politike zmanjševanja tveganja nesreč zaradi zemeljskih plazov v Sloveniji, Acta Hydrotechnica, 34, 39–59, https://doi.org/10.15292/acta.hydro.2021.04, 2021.
Mikoš, M., Brilly, M., and Ribičič, M.: Floods and Landslides in Slovenia, Acta hydrotechnica, 22, 113–131 https://actahydrotechnica.fgg.uni-lj.si/paper/a37mm.pdf (last access: 7 November 2023), 2004.
Panagos, P., Ballabio, C., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, K., Klik, A., Rousseva, S., Tadić, M. P., Michaelides, S., Hrabalíková, M., Olsen, P., Beguería, S., and Alewell, C.: Rainfall erosivity in Europe, Sci. Total Environ., 511, 801–814, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.01.008, 2015.
Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Spinoni, J., Ballabio, C., Meusburger, K., Beguería, S., Klik, A., Michaelides, S., Petan, S., Hrabalíková, M., Banasik, K., and Alewell, C.: Monthly rainfall erosivity: Conversion factors for different time resolutions and regional assessments, Water (Switzerland), 8, 119, https://doi.org/10.3390/w8040119, 2016.
Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Matthews, F., Liakos, L., Bezak, N., Diodato, N., and Ballabio, C.: Global rainfall erosivity projections for 2050 and 2070, J. Hydrol., 610, 127865, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.127865, 2022.
Panagos, P., Hengl, T., Wheeler, I., Marcinkowski, P., Rukeza, M. B., Yu, B., Yang, J. E., Miao, C., Chattopadhyay, N., Sadeghi, S. H., Levi, Y., Erpul, G., Birkel, C., Hoyos, N., Oliveira, P. T. S., Bonilla, C. A., Nel, W., Al Dashti, H., Bezak, N., Van Oost, K., Petan, S., Fenta, A. A., Haregeweyn, N., Pérez-Bidegain, M., Liakos, L., Ballabio, C., and Borrelli, P.: Global rainfall erosivity database (GloREDa) and monthly R-factor data at 1 km spatial resolution, Data Br., 50, 109482, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2023.109482, 2023.
Petan, S., Golob, A., and Moderc, M.: Hydrological forecasting system of the Slovenian Environment Agency, Acta Hydrotechnica, 28, 119–131, https://actahydrotechnica.fgg.uni-lj.si/si/paper/a49sp (last access: 7 November 2023), 2015.
Sodnik, J., Kogovšek, B., and Mikoš, M.: Investments into water infrastrucutre in Slovenia and in Austria, Gradb. Vestn., 64, 1–28, https://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:doc-YN57CQGX (last access: 18 December 2023), 2015.
Sodnik, J., Mikoš, M., and Bezak, N.: Torrential Hazards' Mitigation Measures in a Typical Alpine Catchment in Slovenia, Appl. Sci., 13, 11136, https://doi.org/10.3390/app132011136, 2023.
Špitalar, M., Brilly, M., Kos, D., and Žiberna, A.: Analysis of Flood Fatalities–Slovenian Illustration, Water, 12, 64, https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010064, 2020.
Tarasova, L., Lun, D., Merz, R., Blöschl, G., Basso, S., Bertola, M., Miniussi, A., Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., Thober, S., and Kumar, R.: Shifts in flood generation processes exacerbate regional flood anomalies in Europe, Commun. Earth Environ., 4, 49, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00714-8, 2023.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO): Manual on estimation of Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP), https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=1302 (last access: 7 November 2023), 2009.
Download
The requested paper has a corresponding corrigendum published. Please read the corrigendum first before downloading the article.
- Article
(5269 KB) - Full-text XML
- Corrigendum
-
Supplement
(1133 KB) - BibTeX
- EndNote
Short summary
Extreme flooding occurred in Slovenia in August 2023. This brief communication examines the main causes, mechanisms and effects of this event. The flood disaster of August 2023 can be described as relatively extreme and was probably the most extreme flood event in Slovenia in recent decades. The economic damage was large and could amount to well over 5 % of Slovenia's annual gross domestic product; the event also claimed three lives.
Extreme flooding occurred in Slovenia in August 2023. This brief communication examines the main...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint