Preface to historic and paleoflood analyses: New perspectives on climate, extreme flood risk, and the geomorphic effects of large floods

Paleofloods are flood events that occurred prior to instrumented records that are discerned from sedimentary evidence. Historic floods are flood events that predate the instrumented record that have been reconstructed based on evidence provided by historical sources. This special issue presents papers on historic and paleoflood analyses that stemmed from the 5th International Paleoflood Symposium held in 2016 and a technical paper session convened during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Denver, Colorado, titled ‘Paleofloods and Related Fluvial Processes during the Late Quaternary: Reconstructions and Causes.’ The papers included in this special issue address a wide variety of flood science questions, including hydrologic hazard and risk assessments, the examination of prehistoric human migration patterns, understanding relationships between large floods and climate, and the investigation of cataclysmic flood processes.