The capital of Switzerland and a UNESCO World Heritage site is situated downstream of the head-watershed of the Aare River (about 1 million inhabitants). The location of Berne, a medium sized city, immediately downstream of an Alpine catchment can be upscaled to many comparable cities in a similar topographic and physiographic areas (e.g., Grenoble, France; Innsbruck, Austria).
Investigated climate extremes
Triggering meteorological forcing are rain-on-snow events, local convective rainfalls and upper air cold cut-off lows ultimately causing serious flooding in the area. Furthermore, compound, and cascading effects make situations worse: wood mobilisation in the upstream rivers often increases the flooding. Sediment from landslides and riverbank erosion and related floating wood can clogg up bridges weirs etc.
Main needs
- To provide reliable guidance to the relevant bodies and citizens from the pre-alert level to the intervention.
- To improve people’s knowledge about compound and cascading events
