Recent studies of past floods in Europe have
shown good synergies between palaeoflood studies
and those recorded not only in the modern instrumental
record but also catalogued over centuries in
documentary records (Benito and Thorndycraft,
2004). These historical flood records may be found
in public and ecclesiastic archives, local chronicles,
oral history and may include epigraphical records
(stone-marks indicating the elevation of past floods),
historical photography, old cartography and paintings.
These three principal sources of past flood data
(palaeofloods, historical floods and the systematic
record) in many European basins may overlap