Abstract
In recent years, large-scale flood risk analysis and mapping has gained more attention. Regional to national risk assessments are needed, for example, for national risk policy developments, for large-scale disaster management planning and in the (re-)insurance industry. Despite increasing requests for comprehensive risk assessments, some sectors have not received much scientific attention and one of these is the agricultural sector. In contrast to other sectors, agricultural crop losses depend strongly on the season. Also flood probability shows seasonal variation. Thus, the temporal superposition of high flood susceptibility of crops and high flood probability plays an important role for agricultural flood risk. To investigate this interrelation and provide a large-scale overview of agricultural flood risk in Germany, an agricultural crop loss model is used for crop susceptibility analyses and Germany-wide seasonal flood frequency analyses are undertaken to derive seasonal flood patterns. As a result, a Germany-wide map of agricultural flood risk is shown as well as the crop type most at risk in a specific region. The risk maps may provide guidance for federal statewide coordinated designation of retention areas.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the following organizations for providing the discharge data: Bavarian State Office of Environment (LfU), Baden-Württemberg Office of Environment, Measurements and Environmental Protection (LUBW), Brandenburg Office of Environment, Health and Consumer Protection (LUGV), Saxony State Office of Environment, Agriculture and Geology (SMUL), Saxony-Anhalt Office of Flood Protection and Water Management (LHW), Thüringen State Office of Environment and Geology (TLUG), Hessian Agency for the Environment and Geology (HLUG), Rhineland Palatinate Office of Environment, Water Management and the Factory Inspectorate (LUWG), Saarland Ministry for Environment and Consumer Protection (MUV), Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection North Rhine-Westphalia (LANUV NRW), Lower Saxony Office for Water Management, Coast Protection and Nature Protection (NLWKN), Water and Shipping Management of the Fed. Rep. (WSV), prepared by the Federal Institute for Hydrology (BfG). We are also grateful to Berry Boessenkool for helping us with programming.
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This article is part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “Water in Germany”. Guest edited by Daniel Karthe, Peter Chifflard, Bernd Cyffka, Lucas Menzel, Heribert Nacken, Uta Raeder, Mario Sommerhäuser and Markus Weiler.
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Klaus, S., Kreibich, H., Merz, B. et al. Large-scale, seasonal flood risk analysis for agricultural crops in Germany. Environ Earth Sci 75, 1289 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-6096-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-6096-1