FOR 2416: Space-Time Dynamics of Extreme Floods (SPATE)

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River floods are extremely important to society because of their potential damage and fatalities. Floods are also very interesting research subjects because of the intriguing non-linear interactions and feedbacks involved, interesting issues of generalisation and the need for investigating them in an interdisciplinary way. Extreme floods are not very well understood to date but new, high resolution data and new concepts for quantifying interactions promise a major breakthrough of a body of research carried out in a coordinated way.The objective of this Research Group is to understand in a coherent way the atmospheric, catchment and river system processes and their interactions leading to extreme river floods and how these evolve in space and time. An innovative and coherent concept has been adopted in order to maximise the potential of the cooperation between the research partners which consists of three layers of integration:- research themes focusing on the science questions, - subprojects revolving around specific research tasks, and - a joint study object of extreme floods in Germany and Austria. Using scales as a binding element, the research plan is organised into the research themes of event processes, spatial (regional) variability, temporal (decadal) variability, and uncertainty and predictability. The members of the Research Group have been selected to obtain a team of leading experts with expertise that is complementary in terms of processes, methods and regional knowledge. The cooperation and communication strategy will be implemented through themed cluster groups, combining several subprojects, regular meetings of the cluster groups an annual project symposium and a data warehouse, facilitating data exchange on the joint study object. Equal opportunity policies will be adopted and female and early career scientists will be promoted in a major way. Overall, the outcomes of the Research Group will constitute a step change in the understanding of the coupled system of flood processes in the atmosphere, catchments and rivers which will have major implications for a range of sciences and the society.