Identification and Evaluation of Potential Floodplain Areas Using the Floodplain Evaluation Matrix - Romanian Case Study.

Abstract

A large number of floodplains got lost due to settlements, infrastructure and agriculture. The reconnection of floodplains plays a significant role considering water retention potential and other aspects such as biodiversity conservation, improvement of water status and river morphology. The delineation and evaluation of potential floodplains and their reconnection capacity require the consideration of the multiple parameters to characterize the effectiveness of floodplains in terms of hydrology/hydraulics, ecology and sociology. In order to delineate floodable area within the lower part of the Desnatui river an unsteady 1D hydrodynamic model has been built up and calibrated, using HEC-RAS software. The Floodplain Evaluation Matrix tool has been applied taking into account the following categories of parameters: hydrology (peak reduction ΔQ, flood wave translation Δt), hydraulics (water level Δh), ecology (connectivity of floodplain water bodies, existence of protected species) and socioeconomics (potentially affected buildings, land use). The results showed that identified floodplain areas have high demand for restoration.

Keywords

• potential floodplains
• floodplain evaluation matrix
• lateral connectivity
• restoration measures
• water retention potential.