Task Force Water Governance for border regions
Project fiche for project ideas and proposals 2nd meeting 8.11.2013
Subject: Crisis Management & Flood Control
Date: 20.09.2013
Yes, I shall participate at the second meeting of the Task Force on 8th November 2013
Applying agency (authority, organization, company, River basin Commission, etc.)
Institute: Department of Water, Forests and Fisheries (Departamentul Apelor, Padurilor si Pisciculturii) through the
National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management
Postal address: 97 Bucuresti-Ploiesti Av, Sector 1, 096126 Bucharest
Visiting address: 97 Bucuresti-Ploiesti Av, Sector 1
Postal code: 013686
City: Bucharest
Country: Romania
Telephone: 0040 722661130
E-mail: mj.adler@hidro.ro; mj.adler@yahoo.com
Titel & Project proposal
Category/Sector (technical, institutional, legal, policy, financial, communication, others (please specify):
Crisis Management and Flood Control (FC CRIMAN)
Brief description of the project:
Flood is the most costly natural disaster in Romania, with the floods between 2006 and 2013
resulting in a direct cost of €40 million per year and high death toll and injuries. The 2013 floods
alone caused 12 death and important losses to localities affected by flash floods. Flood can also
cause loss of livelihoods due to loss of crops/livestock or homes, and disruption to industry.
Mapping flood risk will give opportunity for a better land use planning and urban development.
Within the frame of the Flood Directive implementation, Flood Risk Management Plans will be
better fundamented and this could bring on long term sustainable solutions at the basins level, to
increase security of the population and to create a better mechanisms for insuring population and
goods.
On short perspective, accurate and timely warning of flash floods would have significantly reduce
the impact on public safety and economy, allowing authorities to make better decisions to plan
evacuation and to implement flood mitigation measures. With increasing rainfall intensity and
frequency and urban expansion, the flood risk is expected to rise in the future.
Flood-damaged areas in Romania are broadly distributed from the Black Sea and Danube Floodplain
to the mountain regions. While the basins near the coast and the Danube are relatively wellinstrumented with gauges and radar, the monitoring networks become progressively sparser for the
mountain and sub-mountain river basins, leading to a less precise flood forecasts in these regions.
Rainfall, and especially the surface soil moisture, are two key hydrological parameters in the system
and contribute to large uncertainty in the current operational flood forecasting system.
Satellite remote sensing has great potential for providing usable estimates of soil moisture and
precipitation with good temporal repetition on a daily basis and on a regional and continental scale.
A constellation of 3 polar-orbiting satellites (SMOS, GCOM-W, and MetOp-A) launched by Europe
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can provide global, sub-daily estimates of soil moisture over Romania, and it is growing with nearterm mission launched by the US, Europe and Argentina. For rainfall retrievals, the currently
operational Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) provides 3-hourly precipitation estimates
and the joint mission Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) constellation is scheduled for launch
by the US and Japan in 2014.
This project aims to improve the accuracy of flood hazard and risk mapping by a better land use
estimation and urban areas losses by detailed imagines analysis, and on operational activities to
improve the flood forecasting system operated by the National Institute of Hydrology and Water
Management (INHGA) by integrating satellite observations of soil moisture and rainfall in the
stream-flow prediction systems. This project complements the Water Information Research and
Development applications between the National Administration of Meteorology (ANM) and INHGA
to develop a new continuous-flow forecasting system dedicated to flash floods warnings.
Objective
Please formulate the project’s goals in a few sentences:
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To detail and complete the hazard maps available in Romania and build the risk maps based
on statistical and up-dated land use information and developments in the urban areas, as well in
cross border cities.
To improve control for building in floodplains, of deforestation areas, and of the utilities
developed in the flood hazard areas;
To set up streamflow forecasting models in selected catchments across Romania and
synthesize the current understanding of flooding in these relatively small basins, which are greatly
exposed to flash floods and gully erosions impacting localities.
To assess and improve the use of real-time satellite observations of soil moisture and
precipitation over Romania.
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To assimilate the satellite soil moisture into land-surface model to correct precipitation
data, using soil moisture estimates from satellites e.g., AMSR-E and SMOS, to correct precipitation
data and gauge network using Antecedent Precipitation Index (API) model.
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To assimilate the satellite soil moisture into the flood model for the model state correction,
where satellite soil moisture data is used to correct model states in the Flood Forecast Model to
produce improve streamflow rate.
To facilitate cross-learning and knowledge exchange between the National Institute of
Hydrology and Water Management, the National Administration of Meteorology and the University,
and advance the development of an operational flood forecasting system at the National Institute
of Hydrology and Water Management.
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Key question your project aims to answer:
Crisis Management and Flood Control (FC CRIMAN) Project will bring the needed information for
land use and urban areas in floodplains for detailing the hazard and risk maps, for a better planning
of the flood prevention measures integrated at the basin level (FRMP) on long perspective, and on
operational basis, for a better perspective of flood forecasting model application, by better soil
moisture and API estimation.
This project will investigate a new methodology of blending remotely sensed observations from
multiple satellite platforms to improve the model-based hydrologic predictions. To use satellite
observations of soil moisture directly to initialize or calibrate a model or during data assimilation, on
individual basins’ runoff-generating characteristics will result in a better forecasting system.
The innovative satellite data assimilation technique aims to improve the accuracy of flood forecast
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over Romania. Through synergetic use of continental and regional scale monitoring of
environmental variables with state-of-art satellites, the INHGA can expand reliable flood forecasting
services to the flash floods’ catchments where ground monitoring is limited. The success of this
project aiming to improve national forecast capability will have direct, positive social, economic and
environmental consequences in alleviating flood threats. This project will also enable Romania to
build the National Hydrological Forecasting Service capacity in applying the space-borne remote
sensing observations to operational hydrologic forecasting system.
FC CRIMAN will bring also the needed information for operational planning of flooded areas rescue
activities, saving lives and goods under more secure operational activities. A better conceptual data
model (CDM) based on the stakeholders needs for flood management, bringing an improved
knowledge of recorded damages and potential losses for risk assessment. The project will also
contribute to the success of water governance through an improved interface with the wider
audiences, based on a clear program to interact with the media, flood forecast operators, local
authorities, and key policy makers.
Beneficiaries
Who will benefit from the project’s results:
At the national level:
- the INHGA (for improving the forecasting services),
- the National Administration “Apele Romane”- ANAR (the decision makers from the operational
level of hydraulic works intervention)
- the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, by the Department of Water, Forests and
Fisheries – DAPP (the water crisis management coordinator)
At the localities level:
- The National Inspectorate for Emergency Situations Management - Civil Protection services
(through a better intervention planning)
Public Administration system setting tasks and responsibilities to regions and other local
authorities: municipalities, counties and metropolitan cities both in soil defence, with the aim of
mitigating possible environmental damages caused by hydro-geological risks (floods and land
slides), and in emergency planning for civil protection.
For flood risk mapping and planning the beneficiary will be at the policy level, through a good
implementation of the Flood Directive in Romania, under the coordination of DAPP.
In the new political set-up “Strategy for flood risk management” all institutions contribute to the
same national interest which, in case of flood risk management, is the environmental protection
and the preservation of the population living on the Romanian territory. In conclusion, population
and localities will be the end users of the results of FC CRIMAN Project..
FG CRIMAN will bring together scientists, public servants and stakeholders in developing a scalable
system of flood risk maps in Romania. Transnational methodologies and models will be
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implemented for flood risk estimation and mapping, for both gauged and ungauged sites, leading up
to the proposal of flood mitigation measures and improving the warning systems. The effectiveness
of different best management practices, structural and non-structural, will be examined in relation
to flood prevention and low impact development. Upon project completion, local authorities of all
river basins will have at their disposal, and will be trained to use, a state of the art, viable,
integrated system for flood risk estimation and mitigation, which will constitute a solid basis for
decision making in the area of spatial planning. The results of the project will be disseminated at
the level of the central and local administrations, in a wide range of stakeholders within the river
basins, by River Basin Commissions, and a strong knowledge of the flood risk network will be built.
Location
Where is the project located:
Romanian territory and important localities for detailed risk mapping.
Actors
Lead partner:
National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management under the coordination of ANAR and DAPP.
Partners requested:
Consultant companies with experience in flood risk mapping and operational activities for flood
prevention as early warning systems and satellite data integration in hydrological forecasting
models.
Project duration
What will be the duration of the project:
3 years implementation
Budget estimation
What is the estimated budget needed:
To be discussed
Type of program for funding (INTERREG V, FP7, LIFE +, etc.)
Indicate which type of funding you have in mind:
To be discussed
Do you need help with finding the right funding?
To be discussed
Task Force Water Governance (TFWG),
with special focus on border regions
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Task Force Water Governance
Project Development Team
Phone: +31 (0)43 3897487;
Postal address: P.O. Box 5700 | 6202 MA Maastricht | The Netherlands
General email: taskforcewg@prvlimburg.nl
Contacts:
Alfred Evers: ajgm.evers@prvlimburg.nlm. +31 6 5495 6148
Harry Tolkamp: hh.tolkamp@prvlimburg.nlm. +31 6 5237 5690
Fred van den Brink: fwb.van.den.brink@prvlimburg.nl t: +31 43 3897499
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