Linking heavy rainfall to suspended sediment fluxes in a deglaciating Alpine catchment

Skålevåg, Amalie; Schmidt, Lena Katharina; Eggers, Nele; Brettin, Jana Tjeda; Korup, Oliver; Bronstert, Axel

doi:10.5194/hess-30-2717-2026

Articles | Volume 30, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2717-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2717-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 30, issue 9

Research article

|

08 May 2026

Research article |

| 08 May 2026

Linking heavy rainfall to suspended sediment fluxes in a deglaciating Alpine catchment

Amalie Skålevåg, Lena Katharina Schmidt, Nele Eggers, Jana Tjeda Brettin, Oliver Korup, and Axel Bronstert

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2717-2026-supplement

Data sets

Data and code for "Linking extreme rainfall to suspended sediment fluxes in a deglaciating Alpine catchment" Amalie Skålevåg et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19258688

INCA Stundendaten GeoSphere Austria https://doi.org/10.60669/6akt-5p05

Messstationen Stundendaten v2 GeoSphere Austria https://doi.org/10.60669/9bdm-yq93

Continuous meteorological and snow hydrological measurements since 2013 from three automatic weather stations (AWS) in the upper Rofental, Ötztal Alps, Austria Department of Geography, University of Innsbruck https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2023.037

Model code and software

Data and code for "Linking extreme rainfall to suspended sediment fluxes in a deglaciating Alpine catchment" Amalie Skålevåg et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19258688

Short summary

As glaciers retreat in mountain regions, heavy rainstorms increasingly control how much soil and sediment rivers carry downstream. We analysed rainfall and sediment data over 21 years in the Austrian Alps and found heavy precipitation events becoming more important for sediment movement, although total annual suspended sediment transport is declining as glaciers shrink. This shift may increase flood hazards, affecting ecosystems and water quality downstream.