GIS Modeling for Dam Reconstruction. Case Study: Nichiteni Dam, Botoșani County.

Abstract

The study area is located in the northeastern part of the Moldavian Plain and is geologically part of the Eastern European Platform. The Moldavian Plain, from a hydrological point of view, is characterized by a well-represented hydrographic network, but with small and medium flows and a significant number of aquatic accumulations. The storage areas in the Moldavian Plain play a triple role: either they are used for fish or farming purposes, or they are used as efficient flood management structures. In the last decades, the number of these storage areas has seen a dynamic in terms of losing water by clogging and drainage, but also gaining in surface by rehabilitating them. The loss of lenticular water surfaces induces a number of negative effects in terms of the economic structure of neighboring human settlements. From a hydrological point of view, the lack of such areas can lead to devastating effects when floods occur in an area characterized by low rainfall but unevenly distributed and aggressive. This article aims at supporting the importance of achieving and maintaining the storage area functionality in the Volovăţ River basin by simulating two situations in order to regenerate the dam in the Nichiteni area. For the analysis of these two situations, the hydrological modeling program, HEC-RAS v. 5.0.5 and ArcGIS v. 10.2.2 will be used. A first modeling process is to simulate a constant flow under the current conditions of the lack of a dam in the Nichiteni area to highlight the loss of water volume that would hypothetically be stored in the long run and accessible to various economic activities. The second model is the reconstruction of the dam in the same settlement accompanied by the simulation of the lake's retention capacity in the event of a flood.

Keywords

• dam reconstruction
• flood damage
• Nichiteni dam
• HEC-RAS.