Floods are still a significant threat to people, despite of the considerable developments in forecasting, management, defensive, and rescue works. In the near future, climate and societal changes as both urbanization of flood prone areas and individual dangerous behaviors could increase flood fatalities. This paper analyzes flood mortality in eight countries using a 39-year database (1980–2018) named EUFF (EUropean Flood Fatalities), which was built using documentary sources. The narratives of fatalities were investigated and standardized in the database reporting the details of the events. The entire dataset shows a stable trend on flood fatalities, despite the existence of individual increasing (Greece, Italy, and South France) and decreasing (Turkey and Catalonia) trends. The 2466 fatalities were mainly males, aged between 30–49 years and the majority of them happened outdoor. Most often people were dragged by water/mud when travelling by motor vehicles. Some cases of hazardous behaviors, such as fording rivers, were also detected. The primary cause of death was drowning, followed by heart attack. This work contributes to understand the human–flood interaction that caused fatalities. The changes in society’s vulnerability highlighted throughout this study contribute to manage future risks, to improve people protection actions, and to reduce risk behaviors.

This data paper describes the multinational Database of Flood Fatalities from the Euro-Mediterranean region FFEM-DB that hosts data of 2,875 flood fatalities from 12 territories (nine of which represent entire countries) in Europe and the broader Mediterranean region from 1980 to 2020. The FFEM-DB database provides data on fatalities’ profiles, location, and contributing circumstances, allowing researchers and flood risk managers to explore demographic, behavioral, and situational factors, as well as environmental features of flood-related mortality. The standardized data collection and classification methodology enable comparison between regions beyond administrative boundaries. The FFEM-DB is expandable, regularly updated, publicly available, and with anonymized data. The key advantages of the FFEM-DB compared to existing datasets containing flood fatalities are its high level of detail, data accuracy, record completeness, and the large sample size from an extended area.

Floods in the Mediterranean region are often surface water floods, in which intense precipitation is usually the main driver. Determining the link between the causes and impacts of floods can make it easier to calculate the level of flood risk. However, up until now, the limitations in quantitative observations for flood-related damages have been a major obstacle when attempting to analyse flood risk in the Mediterranean. Flood-related insurance damage claims for the last 20 years could provide a proxy for flood impact, and this information is now available in the Mediterranean region of Catalonia, in northeast Spain. This means a comprehensive analysis of the links between flood drivers and impacts is now possible. The objective of this paper is to develop and evaluate a methodology to estimate flood damages from heavy precipitation in a Mediterranean region. Results show that our model is able to simulate the probability of a damaging event as a function of precipitation. The relationship between precipitation and damage provides insights into flood risk in the Mediterranean and is also promising for supporting flood management strategies.

Recent events in Western Attica in Greece (24 deaths in November 2017), in the Balearic Islands (13 deaths in October 2018), and in southern France (15 deaths in October 2018) show that flood-related mortality remains a major concern in Mediterranean countries facing flash floods. Over the past several years, many initiatives have arisen to create databases on flood-related mortality. An international initiative started in 2011 pooling regional and national databases on flood mortality from region and/or countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The MEditerranean Flood Fatality Database (MEFF DB) brings together, in 2018, six Mediterranean regions/countries: Catalonia (Spain), Balearic Islands (Spain), Southern France, Calabria (Italy), Greece, and Turkey, and covers the period 1980–2018. MEFF DB is on progress and, every year, new data are included, but for this study, we kept only the preliminary data that were geolocated and validated on 31st of December 2018. This research introduces a new step in the analysis of flood-related mortality and follows the statistical description of the MEFF DB already published. The goals of this paper are to draw the spatial distribution of flood mortality through a geographical information system (GIS) at different spatial scales: country, NUTS 3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. Level 3) regions, catchment areas, and grid. A fatality rate (F: number of deaths/year/million of inhabitants) is created to help this analysis. Then, we try to relate mortality to basic (human or physical) drivers such as population density, rainfall seasonality, or rainfall frequency across the Mediterranean Basin. The mapping of F shows a negative mortality gradient between the western and the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. The south of France appears to be the most affected region. The maps also highlight the seasonality of flood-related deaths with the same west–east gradient. It confirms that flood mortality follows the climatological seasonal patterns across the Mediterranean Basin. Flood-related fatalities mainly occur during the early fall season in the western part of the Mediterranean area, while the Easter Basin is affected later, in November or during the winter season. Eastern Turkey introduces another pattern, as mortality is more severe in summer. Mortality maps are then compared with factors that potentially contribute to the occurrence of flood fatalities, such as precipitation intensity (rainfall hazard), to explain geographical differences in the fatality rate. The density of a fatal event is correlated to the population density and the rainfall frequency. Conversely, the average number of deaths per event depends on other factors such as prevention or crisis management.

This paper shows the first systematic dataset of flood episodes referring to the entire Pyrenees massif, named PIRAGUA_flood, which covers the period 1981–2015 (available at http://hdl.handle.net/10261/270351, last access: 21 July 2024). First, the structure of the database is detailed so that it can be reproduced anywhere else in the world, adapting to the specific nature of each situation. Subsequently, the paper addresses the spatial and temporal distribution of flood episodes and events (including trends) that affected the Pyrenees regions of Spain (Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre, the Basque Country), France (Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie) and Andorra, as well as the massif as a whole, for a given period of time. In the case of the Spanish regions, it was also possible to analyse the compensation payments by the Spanish Insurance Compensation Consortium and the number of deceased. The weather types associated with flood episodes were also classified based on sea level pressure and 500 hPa geopotential height from ERA5. The results show 181 flood events and 154 fatalities, some of which affected more than one region. In the Spanish part of the Pyrenees, between 1996 and 2015, there was a total compensation payout amounting to EUR 142.5 million (2015). The eastern part of the area records more flood events than the western one, with Catalonia being the community that registered the highest number of events, followed by Andorra and Occitanie. Associated weather types are dominated by the southern component flow over the Pyrenees region, with a talweg on the Iberian Peninsula and a depression in the vicinity, either in the Atlantic or in the Mediterranean. In terms of the entire massif, there is a slight positive trend of 0.84 events per decade, driven by the evolution of ordinary and extraordinary floods but not significant at 95 %. At a regional level, flood behaviour is more heterogeneous, although not significant for the most part. Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the only region that shows a positive and significant trend of 0.34 events per decade.

Floods represent a complex natural hazard, influenced not only by meteorological factors but also by geophysical aspects such as terrain topography, social factors such as the value of exposed assets, and cultural factors like risk awareness. For this reason, the study of these phenomena requires a holistic approach. This requires the correct organization of the information. In addition, given that the information comes from different sources, the traceability of the data must also be contrasted and preserved in order to guarantee its quality and robustness. Databases make it possible to conserve and document historical information, to analyze it and to support smart flood risk management.With this objective in mind, in 2000 the GAMA team developed the INUNGAMA flood database, following the example of other natural hazards databases. This communication will present the new version of this database, FLOODGAMA, and the main results of its analysis. FLOODGAMA contains information on 456 flood events that affected Catalonia (NE of Spain), between 1900 and 2020, which have caused 1,253 casualties. The events are classified according to the impacts. It includes linked tables with information on event dates, descriptions, fatalities, economic damages, affected municipalities, recorded rainfall and recorded flow. Other tables contain historical marks, codifications and the geographical information of municipalities, counties, basins and rivers, as well as meteorological stations. Its structure has been simplified and standardized with Python and migrated to PostgreSQL (PostGIS) from an ACCESS format. The new database allows for more general and straightforward analysis, introduces GIS tool compatibility, and simplifies the addition of new data and new data sources. This last point has been one of the key points in this transformation as it will provide the database with the flexibility to respond to the challenges posed by the digital transformation that is currently taking place and as a tool for the improvement of adaptation.The contribution shows the structure of this flood database and the results obtained after its analysis that allows the characterization of flood events in Catalonia.This research has been done in the framework of the C3Riskmed project, Grant PID2020-113638RB-C22 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and Flood2Now project, Grant PLEC2022-009403 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR.