Institute of Hydrology
Topic
Improving snowmelt flood predictions in mountains
PhD. program
Water Resources Engineering
Year of admission
2026
Name of the supervisor
Ing. et Ing. Patrik Sleziak, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Faculty of Civil Engineering STU
Annotation
River floods are one of the most frequent disasters, causing devastating damage to nature and society worldwide. An accurate and timely prediction of floods is therefore very important for saving lives and reducing economic losses. The Alps-Carpathian mountain range is a unique water tower system in Europe. It stores a significant amount of winter precipitation, in the form of snow, over a long time, which melts quickly. The snowmelt is vital for water supply in lowland regions, but it is often connected with flooding. The prediction of snowmelt floods and understanding the impacts of changing climate and land use on flood generation in the mountains is, therefore, essential for sustainable water management. Within the framework of the proposed doctoral thesis, the changes in snowmelt floods in the Alpine-Carpathian region will be assessed and compared, and the influence of climate, land use, and vegetation changes, as well as their interactions in snowmelt flood generation, will be examined. Traditional tools (i.e., hydrological models) will be used for estimating snowmelt floods, with the analysis performed by confronting a conceptual hydrological model with long-term hydrological and snow records, as well as satellite data. A methodology for more accurate determination of snowmelt floods will be proposed and applied to long-term hydrological records in mountain areas of the Alpine-Carpathian region.