Decreasing the Risk of Floods in Small and Medium Sized Catchments through Natural Storage in Headwater and Riparian Zones

摘要

In many small to medium sized catchments (up to 500-1000 km~2) in Europe, natural storage in both headwaters and riparian areas has been steadily decreasing by large scale drainage and urbanisation. An example of decreasing storage in head water zones is given in Figures 1 and 2, where for a small catchment in the south of the Netherlands the original areas of lakes and heathland on the catchment divide are shown. Also shown is the decrease in area of moorland pools since 1850.