1 „Ștefan cel Mare ” University of Suceava, Faculty of Geography, Suceava, Romania 2 „Ștefan cel Mare ” University of Suceava, Faculty of Forestry, Suceava, Romania 3 Office of soil and Agrochemichals Survey, Botoșani, Romania 4 Water Management System, Suceava
DOI:
10.4316/GEOREVIEW.2015.25.1.274
Pages:
54 - 65
Abstract:
Flash floods, accompanied by high waters and regular
floods, represent the most dangerous natural hazards in the Gemenea
catchment, inducing other risks such as geomorphologic, environmental,
social and economical risks. Flash floods occurred during the 1969 to
2014 monitoring interval are characterized by extremely high discharge
values, of 68.9 m3
/ s in 2006 and 95.3 m3
/ s in 2008 and a magnitude
2.5 times higher than the average discharge recorded until that
timeframe. With an area of 77.7 km2
, the Gemenea catchment falls into
the category of small catchments, where the peak discharge during
exceptional hydrological phenomena is caused by torrential rainfall.
Flash floods of particularly high intensities caused serious damages
through: total destruction or damage of the torrent correction works,
clogging of culverts on catchment forest roads, failure of river banks and
deterioration of the bridges that affected roads and homes in Gemenea,
Slătioara and Stulpicani villages. These floods have also caused damage
to the forest / agriculture fund through deep and lateral erosion, failure
of river banks and landslides. Within this study we aim to emphasize the
magnitude, frequency, duration and area of manifestation of such
phenomena in the Gemenea catchment. Furthermore, we aim to
advance our knowledge of the genesis and specific mechanisms of flash
flood occurrence for reducing their negative impacts on the local
environment and communities.
Keywords:
Risk, torrentiality, time of concentration, frequency, recurrence, flash floods