The influence of lakes and reservoirs on estimated flood peaks at hourly vs. daily timescale in the Alps

Götte, Jonas; Astagneau, Paul C.; Brunner, Manuela I.

doi:10.5194/hess-30-6235-2026

Articles | Volume 30, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-6235-2026

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-6235-2026

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

Articles | Volume 30, issue 19

Research article

|

09 Oct 2026

Research article |

| 09 Oct 2026

The influence of lakes and reservoirs on estimated flood peaks at hourly vs. daily timescale in the Alps

Jonas Götte, Paul C. Astagneau, and Manuela I. Brunner

Data sets

Daily and subdaily flood peaks in Switzerland Jonas Götte and Manuela I. Brunner https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.5bb63026c64548819185e9f201b57af7

Topographical catchment areas of Swiss waterbodies FOEN https://data.geo.admin.ch/browser/index.html#/collections/ch.bafu.wasser-einzugsgebietsgliederung/items/wasser-einzugsgebietsgliederung?.language=en

Short summary

While the effect of water bodies on flood peaks at different time resolutions has been demonstrated in the past, it remains unclear how they affect the ratio between daily and hourly peaks. Our results show that (1) hourly flows are dampened much more strongly than daily flows, which leads to similar daily and hourly flood peaks downstream of reservoirs; and (2) the attenuation effect is particularly pronounced in catchments that are heavily influenced by water bodies.