Are heavy-rainfall events a major trigger of associated natural hazards along the German rail network?

Szymczak, Sonja; Bott, Frederick; Fabella, Vigile Marie; Fricke, Katharina

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-683-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-683-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-683-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 2

Research article

|

13 Feb 2025

Research article |

| 13 Feb 2025

Are heavy-rainfall events a major trigger of associated natural hazards along the German rail network?

Sonja Szymczak, Frederick Bott, Vigile Marie Fabella, and Katharina Fricke

Data sets

CatRaRE: A Catalogue of radar-based heavy rainfall events in 60 Germany derived from 20 years of data (https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/CDC/help/landing_pages/doi_landingpage_CatRaRE_W3_Eta_v2022.01-de.html) K. Lengfeld et al. https://doi.org/10.1127/metz/2021/1088

Short summary

We investigate the correlation between heavy-rainfall events and three associated natural hazards along the German rail network using GIS analyses and random-effects logistic models. The results show that 23 % of floods, 14 % of gravitational mass movements, and 2 % of tree fall events between 2017 and 2020 occurred after a heavy-rainfall event, and the probability of occurrence of flood and tree fall events significantly increased. This study contributes to more resilient rail transport.