Classification of flood-generating processes in Africa

Yves Tramblay; Gabriele Villarini; Mohamed Elmehdi Saidi; Christian Massari; Lina Stein

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-23725-5

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Classification of flood-generating processes in Africa

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Classification of flood-generating processes in Africa

Yves Tramblay, Gabriele Villarini, Mohamed Elmehdi Saidi, Christian Massari and Lina Stein

Scientific reports, Vol.12(1), pp.18920-18920

01/01/2022

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-23725-5

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Abstract

River flooding has large societal and economic impacts across Africa. Despite the importance of this topic, little is known about the main flood generating mechanisms in Africa. This study is based on 13,815 flood events that occurred between 1981 and 2018 in 529 catchments. These flood events are classified to identify the different flood drivers: excess rains, long rains and short rains. Out of them, excess rains on saturated soils in Western Africa, and long rains for catchments in Northern and Southern Africa, are the two dominant mechanisms, contributing to more than 75% of all flood events. The aridity index is strongly related to the spatial repartition of the different flood generating processes showing the climatic controls on floods. Few significant changes were detected in the relative importance of these drivers over time, but the rather short time series available prevent a robust assessment of flood driver changes in most catchments. The major implication of these results is to underline the importance of soil moisture dynamics, in addition to rainfall, to analyze the evolution of flood hazards in Africa.

Flood control

Flooding

Floods

Rain

Rainfall

Soil moisture

Details

Title: Subtitle: Classification of flood-generating processes in Africa
Creators: Yves Tramblay - HydroSciences Montpellier (University Montpellier, CNRS, IRD), 300 Avenue du Professeur Emile Janbreau, 34090, Montpellier, France. yves.tramblay@ird.fr.
Gabriele Villarini - University of Iowa
Mohamed Elmehdi Saidi - Cadi Ayyad University
Christian Massari - Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection
Lina Stein - University of Potsdam
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Scientific reports, Vol.12(1), pp.18920-18920
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-23725-5
eISSN: 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Language: English
Date published: 01/01/2022
Academic Unit: Civil and Environmental Engineering; IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering
Record Identifier: 9984313160202771

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