The 2013 summer flood in Central Europe has inexorably demonstrated the vulnerability of modern societies to these hydrological extremes. The period that passed after the last ‘century-scale’ flood in this region was much shorter than expected and sufficient flood protection devices were, thus, not available. This manifests our still limited knowledge on flood occurrences and their possible causes. Therefore, it is necessary to extend the existing short instrumental flood records by exploring historical and geological archives. Main objective of this session is to contribute to a better understanding of Holocene variations in flood recurrences and magnitudes in space and time, as well as their driving mechanisms. We further welcome contributions on recent methodological advances in paleoflood hydrology aiming at the reconstruction of floods with quantified precision.