Paper short abstract:

Hydrometeorological extremes often disrupted agricultural production, leading to a sequence of negative impacts. Extreme weather events also caused severe damage to the forests, resulting in environmental changes. Such impacts were reflected in the socio-economic issues of the affected population.

Paper long abstract:

The impacts of the hydrometeorological extremes can be assessed as the result of interaction among hydrological and meteorological factors, environmental patterns and human society. Understanding past impacts of the hydrometeorological extremes requires their systematic analysis. For many regions, including the Czech Lands, a comprehensive assessment of such impacts from a broader perspective is, however, missing. Therefore, several documentary evidence (damage and taxation records, narrative sources, early journalism), as well as secondary sources (historical research into forests, professional papers, recent books on the history of towns and villages), were used to analyse various social, economic and environmental impacts of hydrometeorological extremes (e.g. floods, windstorms, hailstorms) in the Czech Lands since the 17th century. Individual consequences of hydrometeorological extremes were classified into four groups: impacts on agriculture, material property, forestry and socio-economic impacts. A series of extreme weather events that occurred in a short period could significantly disturb agricultural production, leading to a sequence of negative impacts resulting in peasant poverty, debts and low investments in the farmstead. Similarly, strong windstorms, long-term droughts or heavy rime caused severe damage to the forests, leading to short-term land-use and environmental changes. All these individual impacts were reflected in the socio-economic issues of the affected population. Despite several negative impacts of hydrometeorological extremes, various mitigation and adaptation measurements of that time are known (e.g. tax alleviation, loans, contribution funds). Contributing to a better understanding of the consequences of the past hydrometeorological extremes, the results reveal the importance of documentary sources in climate history studies.