Utrecht University

Graduate Student, Physical Geography

Thesis Title: Extreme floods of the river Rhine during the last 5000 years

About

Flood risk is determined by the frequency of extreme events. Rhine dikes are designed to withstand floods with a 1/1250-yearly return probability. The magnitude of a ‘1/1250’ flood is estimated, based on a statistical extrapolation of measured discharges over the last
100-200 years. The relative large uncertainty in the amount of discharge related to the design-flood raises the need for extending the period of observations beyond the last 200 years. 5000 years of Rhine flood data can be added by investigating the sedimentary archive of residual channels. Our study performs a multi-proxy approach to locate, date and qualify extreme flooding events. In the future, this data can be used to recalculate the size of the 1/1250-flood.