Assessment of watercourses in terms of their impact on flood hazards: a
case study from a mountain river basin
Abstract
The aim of this case study is to present a methodological approach for
the flood hazard assessment of small watercourses, based on the
evaluation of the impact of the morphology of the watercourse channel,
land cover of the floodplain, transport infrastructures along the
watercourse, bank and channel vegetation, negative attributes of
vegetation, and debris in the channel. Each variable is represented by a
set of attributes that characterise the current state of the watercourse
reach. The assessment process begins with the division of watercourses
into river reaches based on a mutual combination of variables
influencing the flood hazard. Subsequently, the current state of the
variable attributes of each river reach is identified and their impact
on flood hazards is then assessed according to rational rules. The
impact of the individual attributes is first expressed on an ordinal
scale, which is then transformed into a quantitative weight. The overall
Flood Hazard Index (FHI) of the river reach is then determined through
the aggregation of the quantitative weights of the impact of individual
attributes. Key words: Flood hazard index, watercourse attributes,
municipality, riverine landscape, river reach