Landscape impact of extreme events during climate change

Course given at Göttingen University, Module B.ÖSM.300a, in German (but can be provided in English, as well)

Climate change brings along a series of extreme events that make the world wide rise in available energy sensible. Those extreme events impact the man-made environment not just while they are happening, but also long times afterwards by their effects on landscape functions and environment components. For example, the July 2021 Eifel flood event had dramatic and sustainable effects: infrastructure damages, shifted habitats, massive and ongoing erosion on hillslopes and in channels, continuing matter releases from point and diffuse sources.

In this course, you will explore the swath of effects of the 2021 Eifel flood event as a bluepront for future extreme events in a changing climate. You will investigate reasons for the amplified magnitude, discuss direct and indirect effects, investigate the role of catchments (ciritical size, landuse, morphology, slope dynamics), of contributaries (clogging, bank erosion), and trunk streams (infra structure compromises, discharge reconstruction), as well as study the reactions of local agents.

Materials to this course (slides, practical work, R notebooks, data sets) will be provided in due course