Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Extreme flood events in western Mediterranean: integrating numerical MODelling and flood records in KARST systems

Project description

How to predict and mitigate deluge disasters

Erratic rainfall patterns fuelled by climate change pose a threat to our social, ecological and economic systems. Extreme floods loom larger than ever since uncertainties in projected regional rainfall, especially in the Mediterranean, hamper prediction efforts, leaving us unprepared to face nature’s fury. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MODKARST project will leverage stalagmites as geological archives to create a comprehensive flood database for the western Mediterranean spanning millennia. By deciphering past flood events through detrital layers and sophisticated models, MODKARST will illuminate the intricate link between climate shifts and flood recurrence, forging a path to better predict and confront today’s global warming-induced floods.

Objective

Changes in rainfall patterns are a direct consequence of the current climate change. Climate projections indicate an intensification of extreme rainfall events (and floods), which will directly affect social, ecological, and economic systems. Thus, one of the greatest challenges of climate science is to understand, model, and predict the variability of floods both in temporal and spatial terms in the context of the present-day global warming. Nevertheless, the uncertainties in projected rainfall at regional scale are still high, and even higher in Mediterranean areas where the climate is characterized by extreme and sudden rainfall events. The instrumental record is too short to correctly estimate return floods periods. Thus, geological records are required to better understand the long-term variability, at millennial to decadal scales, of natural extreme flood events. Among the most important flood archives, including riverine and lake sediments, stalagmites represent one of the best geological records (i.e. accurate chronology, wide temporal range and good preservation) to study past flood frequency. However, stalagmites have not yet been properly exploited for this purpose. MODKARST will provide a unique opportunity to develop a quantitative flood database for the Western Mediterranean realm based on speleothems. To do so, the action plans to infer past flood events from the last 18,000 years based on detrital layers (indicative of flood events) recorded in stalagmites from 5 different caves. This data in combination with karst hydraulic models and water-level monitoring will allow to quantify past extreme flood events. MODKARST will help to better understand the relation among flood recurrence and climate changes, and will shed light on how to better predict the variability of floods in the context of present-day global warming.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 293 445,60
Address
CALLE SERRANO 117
28006 MADRID
Spain

See on map

Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Partners (2)

My booklet 0 0