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floods

Volume X |

Structural and Non-Structural Measures for Flood Risk Mitigation in the Bâsca River Catchment (Romania)

Abstract: The most common natural hazards affecting the Bâsca River Catchment (extended over a surface of 785.1 sq. km in the Curvature Carpathians) are floods and flooding. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze structural and non-structural measures for flood risk mitigating in this catchment. The study focuses on the main factors which generate and favour floods, as well as on flood characteristics (frequency, the largest floods and its consequences). The main methods are the statistical analyze hydrologic and climatic data, field observations, expeditionary mapping and spatial analyses using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
In order to analyse flood potential, there were processes processed maximum instantaneous monthly and annual discharges of the Bâsca River at the Bâsca Roziliei hydrometric station (1953-2007), Varlaam I (1956-2005), Comandău h.s. (1968-2005) and of the Bâsca Mică River at the Brebu h.s. (1959-1974) and Varlaam II h.s. (1973-2005). Considerations on structural and non-structural measures for protection against floods are presented in the last part of the paper. An inventory of structural works in the middle and lower part of the catchment (hydrotechnical and erosion control works) and their condition was made.

Volume VIII |

The Importance of the Asymmetry of Small Hydrographic Basins in the Occurrence of Major Floods in the Rarău Massif

Abstract: The present study approaches a series of geomorphological aspects specific to hydrographic basins of small sizes which, in certain circumstances, favor the occurrence of floods having major effects upon the human settlements. We focused our attention on three neighboring hydrographical basins, located in a mountainous area in the north of the Romanian Carpathians, where on the 24th of July 2008, following some heavy rains, there occurred major floods. Although the three rivulets the Valea Seacă, the Izvorul Alb and the Valea Caselor are tributaries on the right side of the Moldova river, the behaved differently during the above mentioned flood. The particularity is that within the Izvorul Alb hydrographic basin the maximum flow during the flood was two time lower than in the case of the other two basins between which it is located. Given the fact that the quantity of precipitations received by all three basins did not differ and the physical-geographical features are similar, there was performed the morphometric analysis of all three hydrographical basins in order to outline the morphometric variables with a role in the concentration of the runoff: the surface, the slope, the roundness, the shape coefficient, etc. The conclusion drawn from this case study is that the asymmetry of the basin is an essential parameter in making the difference in respect to the behavior of small hydrographical basins during the formation of exceptional floods.