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Palaeostage Indicators in Rivers—An Illustrated Review

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Palaeohydrology

Part of the book series: Geography of the Physical Environment ((GEOPHY))

Abstract

Palaeostage indicators mark previous water levels. Knowledge about their characteristics and formation is of significant importance for a qualified interpretation. They might indicate the minimum or maximum values for the previous water level which might have been a low level during a drought, mean level or most frequently a high flood-level indicator. They can be divided into natural and man-made types with the first consisting of sedimentary and geomorphological structures, soils and jetsam consisting of vegetation and other debris. Man-made palaeostage indicators are marks on buildings, texts, illustrations and archaeological features like irrigation systems and bridges including technical infrastructure like sewage water systems from historic times. Due to uncertainties as to the accuracy of the reconstructed water levels each palaeostage might indicate, it is useful to carry out plausibility analyses and use more than only one indicator for interpretations—if available.

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Acknowledgements

Comments and materials from several colleagues improved the manuscript and provided inspiration in the context recently and in previous years. Support in this context is appreciated from Gerardo Benito, Paul Carling, Libor Elleder, Renate Gerlach, Oliver Schlömer and Willem Tonen. The topic was discussed during the workshops EX-AQUA 2017 and 2018 “Palaeohydrological extreme events—evidence and archives” in Noida/India and Szeged/Hungary which both were kindly supported by the INQUA Commission on Terrestrial Processes, Deposits and History (TERPRO).

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  1. Department of Geography, Bonn University, Meckenheimer Allee 166, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Jürgen Herget

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Jürgen Herget

  2. Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy

    Alessandro Fontana

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Herget, J. (2020). Palaeostage Indicators in Rivers—An Illustrated Review. In: Herget, J., Fontana, A. (eds) Palaeohydrology. Geography of the Physical Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23315-0_10

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