About project

Title: Sensitivity of flood generation to intensive precipitation and landuse in headwater catchments

Project ID: APVV-15-0497

Acronym of the project: RESPONSE

Duration of the project: 07/2016 - 06/2020

Key words: Flash floods, muddy floods, headwater catchments, hillslope runoff model parametrisation, scaling of hydrometeorological extremes, experimental measurements of runoff and erosion generation.

Project abstract: The recent extreme flash and muddy floods in Europe as well as in Slovakia have raised the need to improve hydrological methods underlying natural flood and erosion protection, especially in small agricultural and forested catchments. One of the major prerequisites for the successful risk management of these extreme events is the scientific quantification of the impacts of land use and management practices, which have undergone major changes over recent decades, on the occurrence, genesis and severity of these extreme events. The project will be focused on an assessment of the sensitivity of the headwater catchments in Slovakia to the generation of extreme flood runoff and water erosion under various land use and management practices in agricultural and forest landscapes. Beside of the study of the extremity and scaling properties of hydrometeorological controls, process oriented procedures for the modelling of extreme runoff and erosion on hillslopes conditioned on the landuse will be developed based on the latest concepts reported in the literature and results from previous at-site experiments. For the model parametrisation in the conditions of small Slovak headwater catchments, processoriented experimental research of overland flow generation, of infiltration processes, and of the canopy interception on agricultural and forested hill-slopes will be conducted. Outcomes of the project will include scientifically-based methods and measures for the reduction of extremity of flood runoff and the adverse effects of soil erosion processes in small catchments in Slovakia and quantitative methods for assessing of the efficiency of natural flood protection measures in flood protection and erosion control in these.