Peak discharge estimation for historical flood events

Throughout time, the majority of civilization has been situated near rivers. The river was, on the one hand, a cheap guarantee of subsistence, but on the other, it could be a dangerous friend in case of flood. In this respect, many damages have been recorded in different cities throughout history because of floods. However, there is no numerical data about the magnitude of possible peak discharges that occurred before the XIX century. With a good kind of information and suitable mathematical tools it is possible to estimate a rank of peak discharges of historical flood events.