More than two years on from the mid-July 2021 Western European floods, researchers are still unpacking different aspects of the deadly event to mitigate such occurrences in the future. A recent paper published in Frontiers from experts at the University of Bonn and the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) looks at the role of forests in flood disasters in particular, contributing to the knowledge base of the UNU Climate Resilience Initiative. While healthy forest ecosystems are known to provide ecosystem services that help reduce flood risks, various aspects of forest health, such as deadwood, can also contribute to flooding. The paper explores the synergetic relationship between forests and flooding and at which points trade-offs might occur.
Figure 1. The green frame depicts the thematic foci of the review to identify synergies and trade-offs between the forest management objectives forest health and flood risk reduction. It covers the influences of forest conditions on water discharge into channels and on flood relevant channel processes.
Read the full paper here.
