HANZE (Historical Analysis of Natural HaZards in Europe) database was initiated in 2016 by Dominik Paprotny (COMPASS project partner) while working on pan-European flood hazard mapping at Delft University of Technology. The first iteration of the database focused on ‘flood normalization’, i.e. adjusting historical data on impacts of floods (fatalities, persons affected, economic loss) for increase in exposure (demographic and economic growth, land-use change). Currently, HANZE goes a step further into the field of ‘impact attribution’, where all components of risk (hazard, exposure and vulnerability) will be quantified and their relative influence on flood losses since 1950 established. Further activities are taking place to expand the research into other types of natural hazards in Europe.
The updated HANZE v2 dataset is now available in full:
- Exposure: population, land use, GDP and fixed asset value estimates for Europe at 100 m resolution from 1870 to 2020 (view)
- Historical floods with impact data (1870-2020): location and impact data on more than 2500 flood events in Europe from 1870 to 2020 (view)
- Historical floods without impact data (1950-2020): supplementary catalogue of 237 floods since 1950 (view)
- Modelled potential floods (1950-2020): model reconstruction of almost 15,000 events since 1950 (view)
- Flood protection levels (1950-2020): estimated actual protection reliability from riverine and coastal floods by subnational regions (view)
- Flood vulnerability (1950-2020): estimated relative loss by impact type and subnational regions (view)
- Flood impact attribution (1950-2020): estimated relative loss by impact type and subnational regions (view)
Sources: https://naturalhazards.eu/about ; Paprotny D., Terefenko P., Śledziowski J. (2024) HANZE v2.1: an improved database of flood impacts in Europe from 1870 to 2020
