Unsteady two-dimensional paleohydraulic reconstruction of extreme floods over the last 4000 yr in Segura River, southeast Spain

Abstract

Summary Floods in the Almadenes Canyon (Segura River, southeast Spain) have been reconstructed using unsteady two-dimensional shallow water modelling. Slackwater deposits, archaeological age dating and hydraulic modelling allowed us to reconstruct some of the oldest extreme floods reported in Spain. The paleoreconstruction was performed for the first time in three steps: retrodicted flood discharges for the most recent flood (AD 900) were quantified comparing the simulated Shields and Froude numbers with respect to characteristic values for the existence of ripples and upper-stage plane bed at a cave that served as a shelter for humans; ensuing velocity, Shields and Froude maps were then used as a forward predictor allowing the finding of additional paleostage indicators far from the shelter; finally, new PSIs were employed to verify the reliability of the reconstruction. In doing so, better insight into the paleoflood landscape was derived from consideration of the association of bedforms and modelled hydraulic conditions. The present study, assuming a stable geometry of the bedrock canyon during the Late Holocene, extends the estimation of flow discharge magnitudes to ca. 4000 yr BP ranging from 500 m 3 /s in the oldest floods (3700 yr BP) up to 700–1000 m 3 /s in the most recent (AD 900).