Inundation Maps for Extreme Flood Events at the Mouth of the Danube River

Daniela E. Nistoran Gogoase, Iuliana Armaş, Cristina S. Ionescu

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DOI: 10.4236/ijg.2011.21007                

Abstract

Hydrodynamic modeling is used to analyse the inundation behavior of St. George village during extreme flood events, in particular for a flood happened in spring 2006. The study reach, 4 km in length, is situated in the Danube Delta, at the mouth of St. George distributary and includes St. George village. Land and bathymetric surveys were used to create a digital terrain model (DTM) of the river channel and the village. By coupling the geometry with hydrologic data, a 2D hydrodynamic model was built up with the help of the CCHE2D code (University of Mississippi). The model is based on integrating Saint-Venant shallow waters (depth averaged) equations through finite-difference implicit numerical scheme. It was calibrated in terms of roughness coefficients on measured values of water surface elevation registered in the St. George port. Flood maps obtained from computations were compared to satellite images from the same days of the spring 2006 extreme event. Inundation behaviour of the St. George village was analysed for different scenarios of river hydrological and sea level (variable because of wind waves) conditions. Findings were compared with high water marks and inhabitants testimonials. The model proved that sea level has a higher influence upon the inundability of the area than the river flood events.

Keywords

Hydraulic Modeling, Finite Difference Method, Flood, Inundation Maps

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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