Evolving flood patterns in a Mediterranean region (1301&ndash;2012) and climatic factors &ndash; the case of Catalonia

Barrera-Escoda, A.; Llasat, M. C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-465-2015

Articles | Volume 19, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-465-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Floods and their changes in historical times – a European...

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-465-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 1

Research article

|

26 Jan 2015

Research article |

| 26 Jan 2015

Evolving flood patterns in a Mediterranean region (1301–2012) and climatic factors – the case of Catalonia

A. Barrera-Escoda and M. C. Llasat

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Final revised paper (published on 26 Jan 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 01 Aug 2014)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C3272: 'Review of hess-2014-321', Anonymous Referee #1, 22 Aug 2014
- AC C4992: 'Answer to referee#1 hess-2014-321', Antoni Barrera-Escoda, 10 Nov 2014
  - AC C4994: 'New version of the manuscript', Antoni Barrera-Escoda, 10 Nov 2014
RC C3950: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #2, 20 Sep 2014
- AC C4993: 'Answer to referee#2 hess-2014-321', Antoni Barrera-Escoda, 10 Nov 2014
  - AC C4995: 'New version of the manuscript', Antoni Barrera-Escoda, 10 Nov 2014

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (10 Nov 2014) by Rudolf Brazdil

AR by Antoni Barrera-Escoda on behalf of the Authors (11 Nov 2014) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (11 Nov 2014) by Rudolf Brazdil

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (21 Nov 2014)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (04 Dec 2014)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (09 Dec 2014) by Rudolf Brazdil

Dear authors,
from reviews of the revised version of your manuscript follow comments mentioned below. Please take them into account in the second revision of your paper. Please consider seriously particularly the point 8. Please respond separately to every comment and sent your responses to them together with the second revised version of your paper.
1/ Page 6, line 7: The discrepancy between Catalan floods and precipitation totals in Barcelona can be due not only the mentioned issue (floods without rainfall exactly in the city) but also due to the opposite one (rainfall in Barcelona missing other catchments). /”It” is redundant in the sentence./
2/ Page 9, line 11: please correct as „for Central Europe“
3/ Page 9, line 14: correct as „in spring“
4/ Page 9, line 15: please correct as „accumulation of ice jam combined“
5/ Page 9, line 20-21: The sentence can be confusing. Trends during 1850-2012 and 1981-2010 are opposite (increasing and decreasing, respectively).
6/ Page 19, line 6: decreased or increased?
7/ Moreover, the recent decrease in flood frequency is not discussed enough. You mention it in the second paragraph at the page 10; however, the last sentence of the paragraph is about an increase of the flood frequency in coastal regions which is not obvious from Fig. 4b.
8/ Chapter 5 Conclusions and discussion is not in an acceptable form – please re-elaborate it. Discussion should put your results into more broader context. Please do not repeat there again the same values and results you mentioned already in previous parts, but discuss them (in the context of knowledge of other papers, uncertainties in your results etc.). Conclusions should put your basic results into more general context, what is contribution of your paper and which problems remain open for future research.
9/ First month in Fig. 2 is December. Is it correct?

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AR by Antoni Barrera-Escoda on behalf of the Authors (19 Dec 2014) Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (22 Dec 2014) by Rudolf Brazdil

AR by Antoni Barrera-Escoda on behalf of the Authors (23 Dec 2014)

Short summary

Catastrophic floods (the most severe ones) in Catalonia from 1301 do not show any statistical trend, while extraordinary floods (moderate ones) have increased since 1850 due to a marked increase in developed land and population in small coastal basins. The most significant flood-rich periods occurred with a strong negative NAO phase. Solar activity has some impact on changes in catastrophic floods: flood-rich periods in autumn generally occurred during periods of increased solar activity.