Hydrological Sciences Journal ISSN: 0262-6667 (Print) 2150-3435 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/thsj20 Spatial patterns of frequent floods in Switzerland Klaus Schneeberger, Ole Rössler & Rolf Weingartner To cite this article: Klaus Schneeberger, Ole Rössler & Rolf Weingartner (2018): Spatial patterns of frequent floods in Switzerland, Hydrological Sciences Journal To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2018.1450505 Accepted author version posted online: 29 Mar 2018. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data | downloaded: 6.1.2020 https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.114004 source: Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=thsj20 Spatial patterns of frequent floods in Switzerland Klaus Schneebergera,b,c, Ole Rösslerb, Rolf Weingartnerb,c aalpS - Centre for Climate Change Adaptation, Grabenweg 68, AT-6020 Innsbruck, Austria bInstitute of Geography, Hydrology Group, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, CH- 3012 Bern, Switzerland cOeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, Switzerland Contact:
[email protected] Abstract This study investigates the spatial dependence of high and extreme streamflows in Switzerland across different scales. First, using 56 runoff time series from Swiss rivers, we determined the average length of high-streamflow events for different levels of extremeness. Second, a dependence measure that expressed the probability that streamflow peaks would meet or exceed streamflow peaks at a conditioning site was used to describe and map the spatial extent of joint streamflow-peak occurrences across Switzerland. Third, we analysed the spatial patterns of jointly occurring high streamflows using cluster analysis to identify groups that react similarly in terms of flood frequency at different sites.