A Comparative Study Of Hydrology Of East Asia And Europe On The Basis Of Floods In The Yangtze River Basin And The Danube River Basin

Basins located on different continents, having different physical-geographical, climatic as well as social and economic conditions obviously have different hydrology and different courses of flood events. Therefore, data collected in the basins, including past flood records, may greatly improve our knowledge of the flood characteristics. That knowledge may be used then for appropriate choice of the flood-prevention measures suitable for the basin, where 'suitable' also means not causing degradation of the ecology of the basin.This thesis presents a research work on hydrology of East Asia and Europe on the basis of floods in the Yangtze River basin and the Danube River basin. The comparative method has been applied to point out similarities and differences between the two basins. The main conclusions are:1. There are clear differences between physical-geographical conditions of the Yangtze River basin and the Danube River basin. Major differences are reflected in different climatic conditions, relief, soils and land cover of the two basins. Differences of the physical-geographical conditions result in different hydrology of each basin. These differences show that river is a result of complex interactions between climate and physical-geographical conditions. At the same time, river characteristics are important indicators very adequately reflecting climatic and physical-geographical conditions existing in a basin.2. Due to different physical-geographical conditions in the two basins, there are clear differences between flood hydrology of the Yangtze River basin and the Danube River basin. Extreme floods, as the 1998 flood in the Yangtze River basin and the 2002 flood in the Danube River basin, prove that flood is the most catastrophic...