Determination of flood vulnerable areas according to 2007/60 Directive

T. Vahaviolos, Determination of flood vulnerable areas according to 2007/60 Directive, Diploma thesis, Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering – National Technical University of Athens, March 2011.

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[Greek]

This study has as starting point the Directive of the European Parliament 2007/60 ''On the assessment and management of flood risks.'' It focuses on the Article 4 of the Directive, which refers to the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment and in particular to the paragraph 2 and the following points: description of the floods which occurred in the past and had significant negative impacts on human lives, the economy and the environment, where there is still the possibility of occurrence of similar future events, including the extent of flooding, the road drainage and the assessment of their effects. assessment of the potential negative consequences of future floods on human lives, the environment, the cultural heritage and the economic activity, taking into account as far as possible issues such as topography, location of watercourses and their general hydrological and geomorphological characteristics, including floodplains as natural retention areas, the effectiveness of existing man-made infrastructure for flood protection, the location of residential areas and areas of economic activity. The study area includes the Greater Athens area that has historically suffered from a series of major and catastrophic floods. The climatic characteristics of the area show the output voltage of extreme rainfall events which increase the chances of flooding events. The flood hazard is exacerbated by the extreme activities of the human environment on the physical characteristics of the basin, which has resulted in the production of multi-level and often unsolved flood problems, as far as the treatment an management is concerned. The first chapter is an introduction to the main concepts treated in the study which conclude the production of floods and the factors that affect it, as well as the flood regime in Greece and Europe. The second chapter presents the institutional framework for the handling and management of flood risks in Greece and Europe and the responsible structures and agencies for the above issue at the Greek state. The third chapter lists the points of interest in the study area, such as some important climatic data and geomorphological features, details of the drainage network and description of the various flood protection projects in the basin, both in a historical and current level. xi The fourth chapter begins by recording the data on extreme flood events in the study area, as well as by presenting the major floods which have hit the region from 1895 until today. In each flood event the daily amounts of rainfall as measured by the meteorological station of the National Observatory of Athens “Asteroscopio”, the areas that experienced the largest flood problems and the existence or not of human losses are indicated. For many of the events listed above additional features of special interest are noted. Moreover the floods that also caused the loss of human lives are presented in the form of a graph. In the main part of this chapter is placed the investigation of the two major flood events that affected the basin on 11/6/1961 and 11/2/1977. For each event an extensive description of its special features is made, such as the information on the incident rainfall that caused the flood event, the most affected areas, the level of mobilization of the civil protection mechanism and the assessment of the damage. The chapter also presents maps through the web application Google Maps which show marked routes or areas where human losses occurred (with brief details on the causes of each loss), other places that played a special role in the evolution of the event, and finally colored areas which encountered the greatest problems. The fifth chapter deals with the registration and identification of areas or individual points which confront particularly increased flood hazards. The sixth chapter first examines the various elements that contribute to the current flood problem the basin and the corresponding lack of flood protection. Then, it deals with facts and principles for designing an integrated flood prevention management plan, with reference to the progress and problems of a flood-protection planning in Greece, by describing the main axes and components for the preparation of plans for flood risk management and the outline of the most important measures to address flood risk by focusing on structural, but not only, projects. Finally, the most important measures of protection from the hazardous effects of flood risks are presented, as given by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection. In the Part A of the Annex the drawings of the hydrographic network of the basin and the flows calculated for the various departments and contributions of the upgraded riverbeds are attached. The Part B of the Annex focuses on informing and warning of severe weather phenomena and upcoming flood risks by reference to information tools and warning devices that operate over the Internet.

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Our works that reference this work:

1. D. Koutsoyiannis, N. Mamassis, A. Efstratiadis, N. Zarkadoulas, and Y. Markonis, Floods in Greece, Changes of Flood Risk in Europe, edited by Z. W. Kundzewicz, Chapter 12, 238–256, IAHS Press, Wallingford – International Association of Hydrological Sciences, 2012.