Upper Skawa catchment (Poland)

The upper Skawa catchment is located in southern Poland and borders with the Czech Republic. Its area is equal to 240,4 km2 and can be classified as a relatively small mountainous catchment with a quick time of response (around 2,5h). The water network in the study area is characterized by a dense dominant short stream with large slopes, resulting from the mountainous nature of the Skawa river. Due to the mountainous environment and frequent excessive rainfall, this area is exposed to the risk of flash flooding. There are four rain gauges in the catchment area, of which one is directly located in the investigated study area. The rain gauges are not well distributed over the entire study area, making the areal estimation of precipitation more challenging. Radar data application over this area is difficult due to radar shadow phenomena. Therefore, hydrological and hydraulic modeling over that kind of area is extremely challenging, while essential at the same time due to the risk of flooding.

This kind of catchment is an excellent reproducible example. Such catchments - mountainous, almost ungauged, and characterized by a quick response time - occur among others close to the study area on the Slovakian and Czech sites.