Abstract: Land uses affect flood risks in various ways. The comparative analysis of the historical and current land cover/uses helps to better understand changing flood regimes. Based on historical cadastre maps from 1826 to 1859, the land cover/uses in the Austrian catchments of the rivers Rhine, Salzach and Drava were reconstructed to almost the level of exact plots of land. Catchment-wide analysis reveals a six-fold expansion of settlement areas, a decline of arable land by 69% and a shrinking of the formerly glaciated areas by 73% until 2016. In the ...
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Topics: 
Physical geography