Author(s)

E. FRANK, D. RAMSBOTTOM & A. AVANZI

Abstract

Following severe floods in 2008 and 2010, the Government of Moldova requested assistance to improve flood protection throughout the country. The European Investment Bank has funded a Technical Assistance project to develop a programme of flood risk management measures. The project included the detailed 2D hydraulic modelling of the high-risk rivers (about 3400 km) to produce flood hazard and flood risk maps, the identification of measures to reduce the flood risk, the prioritisation of measures and the development of a phased investment programme and a Short-Term Investment Plan. Flood risk was assessed using 12 flood risk indicators representing social, economic and environmental impacts of flooding. Prioritisation of measures took account of: (i) the urgency of the measure; (ii) the magnitude of the risk that can be reduced with the measure; (iii) the benefit-cost ratio of the measure. The approaches used and in particular the methodologies implemented and the results obtained for flood risk assessment and for prioritisation of measures proved to be valuable tools to reach the objective of the study and, in particular, to facilitate the discussion with the stakeholders and the decision-making process.

Keywords

flood management, flood risk assessment, hydraulic modelling, measures, national programme