A 1400-years flood frequency reconstruction for the Basque country (N Spain): Integrating geological, historical and instrumental datasets

May 24, 2021

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A 1400-years flood frequency reconstruction for the Basque country (N Spain): Integrating geological, historical and instrumental datasets

Publicated to:QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS. 262 - 2021-06-15 262(), DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106963

Authors: Corella JP; Benito G; Monteoliva AP; Sigro J; Calle M; Valero-Garcés BL; Stefanova V; Rico E; Favre AC; Wilhelm B

Affiliations

Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas - Author

CIEMAT, Environm Dept, Av Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain - Author

CSIC - Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN) - Author

CSIC, Pyrenean Inst Ecol, Avda Montanana 1005, Zaragoza 50059, Spain - Author

ECOHYDROS - Author

ECOHYDROS, Poligono Cros 8, Maliano 839600, Cantabria, Spain - Author

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología - Author

MNCN CSIC, Natl Museum Nat Sci, C Serrano 115Bis, Madrid 28006, Spain - Author

Turun yliopisto - Author

Univ Autonoma Madrid, Ctr Invest Biodiversidad & Cambio Global CIBC UAM, C Darwin 2, Madrid, Spain - Author

Univ Autonoma Madrid, Dept Ecol, C Darwin 2, Madrid 28049, Spain - Author

Univ Grenoble Alpes, IGE, Grenoble INP, CNRS,IRD, F-38000 Grenoble, France - Author

Univ Minnesota, Limnol Res Ctr, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA - Author

Univ Rovira & Virgili, Ctr Climate Change C3, Dept Geog, C Joanot Martorell 15, Vila Seca 43480, Spain - Author

Univ Turku, Dept Geog & Geol, Turku 20014, Turun Yliopisto, Finland - Author

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid - Author

Universitat Rovira i Virgili - Author

Universite Grenoble Alpes - Author

University of Minnesota Twin Cities - Author

Abstract

We present the first reconstruction of past flood events variability in the Basque Country and Western Ebro Basin (Northern Spain) integrating instrumental hydrological datasets (last 20 years), documentary archives (last 700 years) and Lake Arreo (655 m a.s.l.) sedimentary paleoflood record (last 1400 years). In this lake, allochthonous coarse and fine detrital layers (CDL and FDL respectively) intercalated within endogenic laminites were identified and interpreted as high- and moderate-energy flood events. The interplay between human activities and hydroclimate variability has controlled the deposition of these flood layers. Gauged data for the last 20 years suggest that floods are typically generated by heavy rainfall events on saturated soils after several days of continuous rainfall. These events occur mostly during the cold season (Oct–May). The reconstructed frequency of high-magnitude flood events from the lake record is coherent with the historical cold-season floods from Basque rivers. The lowest flood frequency took place during the 6–7 and 10–15 centuries, while higher flood frequency occurred during the 8–9 centuries and the last 500 years. Fluvial and lacustrine paleoflood records and documentary evidence show abrupt and large increases in extreme flood frequency during the termination of the Little Ice Age (1830–1870 CE) and mid to late 20 century, both periods of Rapid Climate Change (RCC). The significant increase in flood frequency observed during RCC suggests that a similar pattern could be expected in the near future with the ongoing global warming. th th th th

Keywords

central pyreneeshistorical floodshuman impactiberian rangelakelake-sedimentslast millenniumlate holocenemulti-archive integrationprecipitationrecordsensitivityvariabilityClimate-changeHistorical floodsLakeLate holoceneMulti-archive integrationPaleofloods

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Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 12/50, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Geography, Physical.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.23. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 1.59 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 2.93 (source consulted: Dimensions Aug 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-08-07, the following number of citations:

WoS: 9
Scopus: 11

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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Finland; France; United States of America.

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A 1400-years flood frequency reconstruction for the Basque country (N Spain): Integrating geological, historical and instrumental datasets

Affiliations

Abstract

Keywords

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

Impact and social visibility

Leadership analysis of institutional authors