 This paper discusses the challenges associated with using multivariate statistics to estimate design events in hydrology and hydraulics. It reviews the current state of the art in multivariate frequency analysis and compares different approaches. The paper also presents a synthetic case study to illustrate how different modeling choices can affect the resulting design event. Finally, it proposes an ensemble-based approach to estimate multivariate design events. This article was authored by B. Grahler, M. J. Vandenberg, S. Vandenberg and others.