Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 49, Issue 20, Pages -Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2022GL100170
Keywords
hazard; realtime warning; flash flood; seismic
Categories
Funding
- HART (Hazard and Risk Team) action of Eifel Flood Event - Helmholtz Centre Potsdam-GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
- DFG (German Research Foundation) Research Training Group Nat Risk Change-Natural Hazards and Risks in a Changing World
- Projekt DEAL
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This study utilizes seismic data to provide valuable information on flood events in Europe, addressing the deficits of existing gauging networks. Seismic data can deliver key flood metrics and enhance understanding of flood behavior. A combination of low-cost seismometers and existing seismic stations can offer important real-time data for future floods and associated hazards.
About 10% of Europe's surface area is prone to rapid flooding of rivers confined in valleys. The devastating potential of such floods is exacerbated by the deficits of existing gauging networks, including low station densities and recording frequencies, and lack of information beyond stage height. Here, we use seismic data of the July 2021 Ahrtal flood, Germany, to extract information to complement sparse hydrometric data, and to reconstruct the rapid evolution of this fatal event. We show that a seismic station can deliver essential flood metrics such as magnitude, propagation velocity and debris transport rate. These seismic products provide high resolution insight to the non-linear flood behavior. We argue that an approach combining distributed low-cost seismometers with existing seismic stations, can provide important real time data on future catastrophic floods and associated hazards in upland catchments, offering precious response time also in currently ungauged landscapes.
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