Areas with Flood Potential Risk in the Lower Uz Catchement (Romania). Protection and Mitigation Measurements

Abstract

Abstract The identification of areas with flood potential risk is important concerning the rational management of emergencies in case of floods. The most significant floods in the history of Romania occurred in the catchment basin of Siret (Uz River being an indirect tributary) and Prut. The analysis focused on the identification of flood potential risk index. The study involves the analysis of natural and anthropogenic physical and geographic factors: lithology, land declivity, soil texture, profile curvature and land use. The weighting of each analyzed factor for the contribution to floods was obtained using the AHP extension of the ArcGIS software. This methodology was applied for the lower Uz river basin, situated downstream from Lake Poiana Uzului. The catchment basin of Uz was affected by major floods in the summer of 2005, while the Uz River recorded a maximum historic discharge of 132 m3/s, at the precipitation station of Darmanesti, situated upstream from the Poiana Uzului reservoir. The consequences of the historic high water were serious. Extended surfaces within the major riverbed were flooded, numerous houses were partially damaged and some destroyed. The study highlights that the highest values of flooding index range between 3.96 and 4.71 and that they affect 14% of the entire surface of the studied area.