Evidencias dendrogeomorfológicas de inundaciones en la cuenca alta del río Noguera Pallaresa (Pirineos, España)

Mar Génova; Gloria Furdada; Marta Guinau

doi:10.3989/pirineos.2023.178008

Authors

Mar Génova Departamento de Sistemas y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1944-1888
Gloria Furdada Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, GRC RISKNAT, UB-Geomodels, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4204-3135
Marta Guinau Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, GRC RISKNAT, UB-Geomodels, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2898-4625

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/pirineos.2023.178008

Keywords:

Torrential Dynamics, Tree Rings, Instrumental Records, Historical Data, Geomorphological Analysis, Romadriu and Flamisell Subcatchments

Abstract

Mountainous areas are prone to torrential floods that are characterized by their ability to mobilize large volumes of sediment and other materials such as large wood. In the case of the upper catchment of the Noguera Pallaresa River (Pyrenees of Lleida, Spain), the main destructive floods are well identified and their main parameters described, but the detailed spatial and temporal edge of these and other less severe events are still lacking. With the aim of extending the information on the effects of these floods, this work analyzes and compares different data sources, based on dendrogeomorphological sampling carried out in two tributaries of the Noguera Pallaresa River: the Flamisell River (on the right-hand margin) and the Romadriu River (on the left-hand margin). The dating of the main dendrogeomorphological indicators in both these tributaries, especially scars and abrupt growth changes, and also the estimated dates of tree establishment, are contrasted with data from the documentary, geomorphological, meteorological, and hydrological sources. It is verified that in these small and medium subcatchments, with very heterogeneous rainfall due to orography, the instrumental data (often very scarce) may not adequately reflect the hydrological dynamics. This work confirms that an analysis of the dendrogeomorphological and documentary sources is therefore essential to characterize and evaluate the incidence of these torrential floods in different territorial areas.

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