The aim of the current publication is to present a conceptual framework for integration of flood risk assessment into flood management practice in Republic of Bulgariathe case study of Yantra River Basin. The conceptual framework is based on the concept of flood risk, which presents risk as the combination of 'probability of flooding' and 'negative consequences' for Human health, Economy, Environment and Cultural heritage. Flood risk management is a holistic and continuous process, which includes analysis of the flood risk system (determination of current and future flood risk), the evaluation of a certain system state (judgement on risk and risk reduction alternatives) and the reduction of undesirable risk (strategic alternatives for flood risk reduction). A central place in the conceptual framework take the applied methodological approach for flood risk assessment and mapping of Yantra River Basin, which allows application of different flood risk management regimesbefore, during and after the flood event A number of flood risk reduction alternatives are analysed. The major findings of the research are flood vulnerability and risk maps of the Yantra River, as well as identified interventions in the river flood-risk system based on physical measures and policy instruments.
Dealing with the devastating effects from natural disasters requires implementation of innovative approaches and integrated policies for disaster risk management. The development on the territory of Southeast Europe, including Republic of Bulgaria, is an object of various natural hazards, such as earthquakes, floods, strong winds, wildfires, etc. A number of political instruments of the EU promote development and implementation of integrated approaches for mitigation of the effects from natural disasters on development. The implementation of the European integrated policies by all member-states induces a number of challenges to governments, especially concerning data availability, access and credibility. This publication presents the main problems and challenges related to multi-risk assessment of natural hazards, regarding creation of a data model. Database concepts for multi-risk assessment and mapping shall include sufficient and quality information related to the separate stages of risk assessment -risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation. In general, the challenges related to spatial data for multi-risk assessment and mapping come from the constraint to process, combine and evaluate data with different sources, and formats, which is often different to compare and relate. At the national level, data models face further difficulties of limited access to information, high prices and lower requirements for data quality. The publication presents an approach for multi-hazard risk assessment in Bulgaria, a geodatabase conceptual model and the challenges ahead its creation and processing. The data and data sources are evaluated in terms of their quality, availability, input and reliability to the achieved results of multi-risk assessment and mapping in Bulgaria.
Vulnerability is a key element in the risk conception (risk = hazard + vulnerability), representing the circumstances determined by 'physical, social, economic, and ecologic factors or processes, of a community, system or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard' [11]. A crucial part of the policies for disaster risk reduction is the reduction of vulnerability, which is related to the susceptibility of human development: human life, economy, social organisation, and the physical aspects of the environment. Although public and economic vulnerability are perceived as the most important components of vulnerability, it is very important to take into account the significance of the biophysical basis for human life -the environmental and physical aspects of vulnerability and to deal with them in an integrated way. The publication aims at analysis of the integrated vulnerability as a tool for disaster risk reduction by reduction of the vulnerability itself. The publication presents the approaches for integrated vulnerability analysis. The vulnerability is integrally analysed by its factors (exposure, susceptibility and resilience) and dimensions (social, economic, environmental and physical). The integrated vulnerability of a territory is measured as a combination of the factors listed above. All of them can be represented by a set of indicators, whose selection should be reasonable and well-grounded. The set of indicators should allow measurement of the vulnerability factors for each of the vulnerability dimensions. An integrated vulnerability analysis is developed and presented for a case study from Republic of Bulgaria.
In recent times, there have numerous floods emergency events and disasters -natural and anthropogenic that has threatened people, their health, animals, property etc. When natural disasters such as floods are imminent or have recently occurred, often a large number of people in the affected regions require evacuation. People should be prepared for such situations and should be able to respond adequately and quickly to a particular event. Problems considered in evacuation decision-making include the decision whether to evacuate, and how to ensure safe evacuation of the population through effective coordination of a range of resources. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to analyze the existing flood evacuation practice in Bulgaria and to show the possibilities that flood risk assessment (flood zones maps) provide for a more efficient evacuation planning. A methodological approach based on disaster cyclic is applied. According to this cyclic, emergency decision-making in evacuations is divided into three phases : pre-evacuation decision-making, which is primarily concerned with the question of whether evacuation is required; decision-making during evacuation, which is comprised of a variety of decisions related to the transfer of the affected population from dangerous to safe destinations; and decision-making after evacuation, where the principal concern is regulation of the social and psychological responses of the population who have suffered a disaster. The main findings of the research are developed evacuation maps based on the flood risk assessment, as well as the formulated policy recommendations for improving evacuation planning in Bulgaria.
A number of methods have been developed in hydrological practice to calculate maximum runoff. However, many of them are highly uncertain of the results obtained due to the poor quality of the maximum water quantity data. The challenge is also to calculate the maximum runoff in watersheds for which there are insufficient and / or no observations at all. Such is the case with the catchment area of the Skat River, where during the period 3.08. -7.08.2014 catastrophic flood occurs. As a result, the town of Mizia was flooded, material damage was caused, dozens of houses were completely destroyed, and two people were killed. The hydrometric station near Mizia is also carried away from the water. In this connection, the purpose of this publication is also to calculate the maximum water quantity of the high wave that caused the flood of Mizia in the absence of high wave data. To achieve this goal, an integrated GIS with hydraulic calculations approach is applied, allowing the reconstruction of the actual flooded area outside and within the boundaries of Mizia. The reconstruction of the flooded area was carried out on the basis of a total of 29 landmarks taken with a GPS device. In the absence of landmarks, the flooded area was reconstructed using a satellite image from 14.08.2014, taken by the Landsat 8 satellite. The main results of the study are the reconstructed and modeled floodplain, the calculated volume and the maximum runoff of the high wave flooded the town of Mizia.
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