Abstract
In this paper, we analyse the effectiveness of flood
management measures based on the concept known as retaining
water in the landscape. The investigated measures
include afforestation, micro-ponds and small-reservoirs. A
comparative and model-based methodological approach has
been developed and applied for three meso-scale catchments
located in different European hydro-climatological regions:
Poyo (184 km2) in the Spanish Mediterranean, Upper
Iller (954 km2) in the German Alps and Kamp (621 km2)
in Northeast-Austria representing the Continental hydroclimate.
This comparative analysis has found general similarities
in spite of the particular differences among studied
areas. In general terms, the flood reduction through the concept
of retaining water in the landscape depends on the following
factors: the storage capacity increase in the catchment
resulting from such measures, the characteristics of the rainfall
event, the antecedent soil moisture condition and the spatial
distribution of such flood management measures in the
catchment. In general, our study has shown that, this concept
is effective for small and medium events, but almost negligible
for the largest and less frequent floods: this holds true for
all different hydro-climatic regions, and with different landuse,
soils and morphological settings.
