Abstract
The paper summarizes our knowledge of the flood regime of the Opava river basin between 1960 and 2010. Emphasis is placed on the categorization of the individual components of the causes of flooding and the development of floods.
Analogies were sought among floods based on their causal symptoms and the characteristics of the runoff response. Summer and winter categories of flood waves have been delineated via statistical methods, which characterize common features of floods by cluster analysis and similarity index.
Flood episodes have been divided into nine groups (four types of winter- and five types of summer floods) based on the spatial and time distribution of rainfall, which is caused by specific atmospheric circulation and thus influences the development and formation of the flow waves.