Author(s)

M. Holicky & M. Sykora

Abstract

Floods have recently caused significant economic losses and affected a number of civil engineering structures in many countries including the Czech Republic. Various protective measures have been considered to reduce adverse consequences of flooding in future. Decisions concerning expensive measures should be preferably based on risk optimisation, taking into account cost of measures, potential societal and economic consequences and losses of cultural and heritage values in case of historic structures. Methods of probabilistic risk optimisation seem to provide a suitable tool for identification of the most effective permanent and temporary measures. Present paper provides general framework of the risk assessment of heritage structures endangered by fluvial floods. The total consequences may be assessed using Bayesian networks supplemented by decision and utility nodes. Further investigations of relevant input data including societal and economic consequences and losses of cultural and heritage values are desired. Keywords: risk assessment, heritage structures, fluvial floods. 1 Introduction Numerous regions of the Czech Republic suffered from extreme fluvial flooding in August 2002. Most existing flood protections were overwhelmed and damage exceeded 3 billion EUR. Emergency measures hastily applied during the flooding included protective barriers, prompt removal of floating debris from bridges, additional anchors for river traffic and movement of people away from endangered areas. Despite these measures, construction works were considerably damaged. Particularly severe consequences were observed in the city of Prague

Keywords

risk assessment, heritage structures, fluvial floods