Flood risk is projected to increase globally in the future due to anthropogenic global climate change. However, our understanding of the impact of climate change on the recurrence of extreme flood events at centennial-millennium time scales is hindered by the lack of instrumental records and historical documents, especially in the transitional zone between the humid and sub-humid zones (e.g., the Huaihe River Basin) in eastern China. To better understand regional paleoflood dynamics, here we present a mid-late Holocene paleoflood record from the Xichen site in the Sihe River Basin, East China. A multi-proxy approach including grain size, geochemical elements, and OSL dating was employed to identify and constrain the age of extreme overbank flood events during the mid-late Holocene. Our synthesis of regional paleoflood records and comparison with global climatic proxies suggest that ENSO possible have played a pivot role in regulating the occurrence of extreme flood events in the Yi-Shu-Si River Basin during the mid-late Holocene. Our findings shed new light on the forcing mechanisms of extreme flood events in this area, which in turn may help inform policy for long-term planning of flood control and hazard mitigation under the global warming.
 

Overbank floods; Yi-Shu-Si River Basin; ENSO; Mid-late Holocene; East China