Gintaras Valiuškevičius, E. Stonevičius, G. Stankunavicius, Janina Brastovickytė-Stankevič
{"title":"Severe floods in Nemunas River Delta","authors":"Gintaras Valiuškevičius, E. Stonevičius, G. Stankunavicius, Janina Brastovickytė-Stankevič","doi":"10.5200/BALTICA.2018.31.09","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The river delta regions are usually most vulnerable to flooding due to small changes in terrain elevation and\nriver – sea interaction. The trends of increased frequency of flooding and an increased duration of the high water events\nare evident in many regions. In this study, we analyse the most extreme (severe) flood events in the Nemunas Delta region\nof Lithuania. The study focuses on the causes of floods and their changes over 1926–2016. Analysing specific case studies\nand comparing them with related studies of other researchers, we present an original interpretation of the variability of\nflood parameters. The aim of the study is to demonstrate that the analysis of flood events must be based on the identification\nof the drivers of individual floods. This is especially true for the lower reaches and the delta regions of rivers situated\nwithin the North European Plain. Historically, an intense melting of snow appeared to be the main cause of severe flooding\nin this region. The results of this study, however, show that the situation has rapidly changed over the last 30 years and\nlarge areas can be flooded even if the snow water equivalent over the whole basin is relatively low.","PeriodicalId":0,"journal":{"name":"","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5200/BALTICA.2018.31.09","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
The river delta regions are usually most vulnerable to flooding due to small changes in terrain elevation and
river – sea interaction. The trends of increased frequency of flooding and an increased duration of the high water events
are evident in many regions. In this study, we analyse the most extreme (severe) flood events in the Nemunas Delta region
of Lithuania. The study focuses on the causes of floods and their changes over 1926–2016. Analysing specific case studies
and comparing them with related studies of other researchers, we present an original interpretation of the variability of
flood parameters. The aim of the study is to demonstrate that the analysis of flood events must be based on the identification
of the drivers of individual floods. This is especially true for the lower reaches and the delta regions of rivers situated
within the North European Plain. Historically, an intense melting of snow appeared to be the main cause of severe flooding
in this region. The results of this study, however, show that the situation has rapidly changed over the last 30 years and
large areas can be flooded even if the snow water equivalent over the whole basin is relatively low.