Starting in 2018, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) began organising a side event for the wider public during the annual EGU General Assembly, whch traditionally takes place each spring in Vienna, Austria. Although this year’s General Assembly will be held online due to the pandemic, the EGU Public Lecture, which provides insight into a topic in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences of interest to a broad audience, will still take place in partnership with the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The EGU Public Lecture 2021 will be delivered in German by Günter Blöschl, Head of the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Engineering Hydrology at the Vienna University of Technology. The hour-long lecture will answer the question: are floods in Europe getting bigger?

Using clear and objective data, Blöschl will show how floods in Europe, including in Austria, have changed in past centuries and especially in the last few years. The roles of climate change and building of the landscape will be discussed, as well as whether the flood situation is likely to worsen—and, if so, how we can deal with it.

The lecture will take place virtually on Wednesday 21 April at 18:00 CEST and will be introduced by EGU President Alberto Montanari. Christian Köberl, Chairman of the Austrian Academy of Science’s Commission for Geosciences and a professor at the University of Vienna, will moderate the event, which will include a public discussion.

Anyone interested in hearing the lecture, which will be held on Zoom, is welcome; additional information and the livestream link are available here. For more information about the EGU Public Lecture, please contact media@egu.eu.

• EGU Public Lectures
• Event page on the ÖAW website
• EGU General Assembly 2021
• Austrian Academy of Sciences