Efficiency of non-structural flood mitigation measures: ¿room for the river¿ and ¿retaining water in the landscape¿

01.11.2006 - 31.12.2009
Auftragsforschungsprojekt
The aim of this proposal is to examine the relative efficiency of non-structural flood mitigation measures. Three study catchments will be selected, the semiarid Rambla del Poyo in Spain (380 km²), the humid/midland Kamp in Austria (1500 km²), and the alpine/prealpine Iller in Germany (950 km²). The floods in these catchments cover a wide spectrum of processes to be expected in the European Research Area. Flood risk mitigation can be done reducing vulnerability and/or hazard in order to reduce the total flood impact. In this project, the efficiency of three non-structural flood mitigation measures will be examined through scenario analyses: i) land use changes (agricultural to forest; local infiltration in urban areas); ii) local retention measures in the landscape through micro ponds; and iii) flood retention along the main stream by providing inundation area based on the room for the river concept. In WP1, scenarios will be defined that represent the various mitigation measures as well as a "business as usual" scenario. This WP also specifies the various flood types including large magnitude synoptic floods, flash floods associated with convective storms as well as snow melt induced floods. WP2 focuses on the catchment hydrology, and includes parameterisation and verification of distributed hydrological models, performing simulations for the scenarios (in order to obtain the input hydrographs to WP3) and a statistical assessment of the simulated events. These simulations will be used in WP3, where hydraulic analyses will be performed along the river reaches of interest by running non-steady state models and/or linking up to existing results of hydraulic models. These analyses will allow the assessment of retention measures along the main stream and will provide flood inundation areas. Flood hazard maps will be the main output of this WP. WP4 assesses the efficiency of the flood mitigation measures in terms of the impact or risk by combining the hazard (as estimated by the hydraulic models) with the vulnerability of the flood prone areas. Depending on data availability, the level of detail of the vulnerability assessment will differ, as is consistent with the scale and the duration of the project and a focus on the relative efficiency of the mitigation measures. It is expected that the relative efficiency will differ both with the magnitude and the type of the floods. Local flood managers will be involved in the project through a two-way exchange of ideas and a seminar in each study catchment, and synergies with the FLOODsite project will be exploited.

Personen

Projektleiter_in

Projektmitarbeiter_innen

Institut

Contract/collaboration

  • Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft

Forschungsschwerpunkte

  • Risk based Design: 60%
  • Environmental Monitoring and Climate Adaptation: 20%
  • Modeling and Simulation: 20%

Schlagwörter

DeutschEnglisch
Hochwasserrückhaltflood retention
Überflutungeninundations

Publikationen