Magdalena Rogger receives Fehrer Award

Magdalena Rogger receives the Fehrer Award 2013 for her PhD on “Extreme flood estimation and runoff processes in alpine catchments”

The Fehrer Award, which is donated by the family of Dr. Ernst Fehrer, is granted yearly to a young scientist for new ways of problem solving in the fields of civil engineering, chemistry, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and physics. The Award of 2013 went to Magdalena Rogger for her PhD on “Extreme flood estimation and runoff processes in alpine catchments”.

In her PhD, Magdalena Rogger investigated runoff processes that lead to the generation of extreme flood events in the alpine region of Austria. Information on the magnitude and frequency of such events is critical to ensure that infrastructure such as dams, bridges and flood protection measures are built to cope with high water levels. A better understanding of the processes that lead to these events is therefore crucial to improve flood protection. Magdalena Rogger analysed the runoff processes in a number of alpine catchments by using a rainfall-runoff model which was based on detailed field information including land use, surface runoff properties and soil storage. By running statistical simulations of runoff, she was able to show that large floods may be influenced by threshold processes that can occur when storage compartments in the catchment are exceeded.  Such processes are currently not taken in account if flood estimation is only based on statistical extrapolation and flood records are short. Magdalena Rogger and her coauthors therefore suggest that hydrologists and engineers may be better able to predict floods if they also consider the catchment storage and the critical thresholds.