ABSTRACT
The notion of flooding, describing the potentially destructive abundance of water in normally dry locations, embraces different categories of events. This Chapter looks at the flood-relevant processes in Germany with a holistic perspective, by considering a logical chain of related processes and variables. Numerous destructive floods have occurred in German lands throughout history, and to the present. Floods of cluster A catchments in the western and central part of Germany typically occur in the months from December to April, with highest frequencies in December. The meteorological data referred to come from the German Weather Service records and include daily values of mean temperature, precipitation total, specific air humidity, and information on large-scale weather patterns. Due to the diversity of the processes and factors involved, the extent of the consequences of various factors on flood generation and subsequent flood hazard has rarely been approached in an integrated manner.
