Natural hazards in Australia: floods

Johnson, FionaUNSW Water Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, Australia (author)

Floods are caused by a number of interacting factors, making it remarkably difficult to explain changes in flood hazard. This paper reviews the current understanding of historical trends and variability in flood hazard across Australia. Links between flood and rainfall trends cannot be made due to the influence of climate processes over a number of spatial and temporal scales as well as landscape changes that affect the catchment response. There are also still considerable uncertainties in future rainfall projections, particularly for sub-daily extreme rainfall events. This is in addition to the inherent uncertainty in hydrological modelling such as antecedent conditions and feedback mechanisms. Research questions are posed based on the current state of knowledge. These include a need for high-resolution climate modelling studies and efforts in compiling and analysing databases of sub-daily rainfall and flood records. Finally there is a need to develop modelling frameworks that can deal with the interaction between climate processes at different spatio-temporal scales, so that historical flood trends can be better explained and future flood behaviour understood.

White, Christopher J.School of Engineering and ICT, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia; Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia (author)
van Dijk, AlbertFenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (author)
Ekstrom, MarieLand and Water, Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, Australia (author)
Evans, Jason P.Climate Change Research Centre & ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, UNSW, Sydney, Australia (author)
Jakob, DörteEnvironment and Research Division, Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Australia (author)
Kiem, Anthony S.Centre for Water, Climate and Land Use (CWCL), Faculty of Science and IT, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia (author)
Leonard, MichaelSchool of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia (author)
Rouillard, AlexandraSchool of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia(Swepub:umu)alro0107 (author)
Westra, SethSchool of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia (author)
UNSW Water Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, AustraliaSchool of Engineering and ICT, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia; Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia (creator_code:org_t)

By the author/editor: Johnson, Fiona; White, Christoph ...; van Dijk, Albert; Ekstrom, Marie; Evans, Jason P.; Jakob, Dörte; show more...; Kiem, Anthony S.; Leonard, Michael; Rouillard, Alexa ...; Westra, Seth; show less...

About the subject

NATURAL SCIENCES: NATURAL SCIENCES; and Earth and Relate ...; and Oceanography Hyd ...

NATURAL SCIENCES: NATURAL SCIENCES; and Earth and Relate ...; and Climate Research

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