Flood control – global experience and innovative solutions.

It’s spring again, and again there are catastrophic floods in the regions of the post-Soviet space.

From year to year, the world community discusses this problem, and from year to year, the beginning of spring ends the same way - with the flooding of many populated areas located on the banks of large waterways.

Floods are one of the most destructive natural phenomena we have to deal with. They can cause enormous material losses and loss of life. Floods cause economic damage, cause environmental disasters by destroying flora and fauna, and force people to leave their homes and lose their sources of income.

According to the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), “more than 5,000 people die each year worldwide as a result of flash floods… flash floods account for about 85% of all flooding events.”

WMO experts say Russia will suffer more floods in the near future if global warming exceeds 1.5 degrees. This will be the result of spring floods and increased precipitation.

Flood events pose challenges that must be met. A negligent attitude towards this leads every year to catastrophic floods, similar to those currently occurring in 23 regions of Russia. In 2024, the passage of floods in these regions is accompanied by a rise in water levels by 58-233 cm and flooding of floodplains on the rivers of the Central, Northwestern and Volga Federal Districts. At the same time, a flood occurred in Kazakhstan, which the government assessed as the largest disaster in the last 80 years.

These floods are caused by a seasonal natural phenomenon long known to mankind: due to spring floods after heavy snowmelt, coastal settlements are flooded.

The cause of floods is the limited capacity of the river bed. If there is too much melt water, and precipitation is added to it, the bed overflows and the river overflows its banks.

In coastal areas, the land often lacks water-holding capacity. The reason for this is aggressive human activity in the territory of floodplain ecosystems, cutting down coastal forests, and blockages.

The situation is often complicated by the fact that populated areas are flooded not only by water from overflowing reservoirs. When snow and ice melt rapidly in fields, the water does not soak into the frozen soil, flows down slopes into lowlands and floods the settlements. For example, in Kazakhstan, the flooding of most settlements occurred due to rapid melting of snow in the steppes, from where the water came in streams. Why? There are no protective dams, storage reservoirs, water drainage systems, effective monitoring and public warning systems.

The fight against floods involves the use of a whole range of measures.

1. It is necessary to construct and maintain water intake structures, diverting dams, flood control dams, and carry out measures to regulate river beds.
2. Creation of reservoirs and tanks for the discharge of excess water;
3. Improvement of drainage and water disposal systems in populated areas;
4. Regular maintenance and cleaning of drainage systems and sewerage;
5. Creation of flood zones and water retention structures;
6. Development of evacuation plans and emergency measures;
7. Educating the population on flood prevention measures and actions to take in case of flooding;
8. Water level monitoring and flood forecasting using modern technologies.

In the Soviet Union, hydrometeorological institutes were created to study floods. Since the 1990s, the work rates of these institutes have slowed down throughout the post-Soviet space. The technical condition of the equipment has deteriorated and worn out, and outdated Soviet technology is still used.

During the last floods in the Orenburg region, there was an overflow over the dam. The climate situation changed and the structure could not cope with the volumes of incoming water. It was possible to prevent the overflow and take preventive measures, but for this it is necessary to regularly carry out predictive flood control measures in each district at the municipal level every year. Control over the situation is the concern of the state.

Today, modern technologies are used to predict and minimize the consequences of flooding - complex prognostic models have been developed that allow us to predict the likelihood of floods with a large margin of time.

Russian manufacturers have a fair number of technical developments – flood monitoring systems. These systems allow receiving and promptly processing information from monitoring devices on hydraulic structures and reservoirs in order to take readings and respond in time.

Modern equipment allows for fully automated flood monitoring processes and promptly informing those responsible.

Objectively, the picture looks like this: no work is being carried out in the regions on flood monitoring and no preventive measures are being taken to prevent them.

It is necessary to monitor not only the conditions that can lead to the formation of floods, but also the condition of protective structures - their wear and tear and resistance to changing indicators.

Having regulated rivers with dams, we have not eliminated risks forever. Dams come in different forms, but in any case, they are varieties of earthen embankment prisms resting on piles with slopes. None of the materials used in the construction of a dam last forever. In the earthen body of a dam, filtrate is found, subsidence and deformations occur. At high water levels and pressure on the "body" of the dam or dam, in the presence of wear, breakthroughs occur.

World statistics are merciless.

In 1993, the earthen dam of the Kiselevsky Reservoir burst in Russia’s Sverdlovsk Region. In 1994, the Tirlyansky Reservoir dam burst in Bashkiria. In 1975, the Banyazo Dam burst in China, killing tens of thousands of people. In 2020, two dams in Midland County, Michigan, USA, burst in two directions. In 2024, the dam in Orsk, Orenburg Region, burst.

Even this small sample makes you think.

The comprehensive flood prevention measures we have listed are only a small part of the activities that need to be carried out to combat floods. If they are carried out under state and municipal control regularly throughout the year, the risks of floods and inundations will be significantly reduced and the consequences will not be so large-scale.

The world has already accumulated and continues to improve experience in integrating the latest technical solutions and traditional approaches. For example, "smart" dams equipped with automatic water outflow control systems. Computerized water resource management systems are being created that can quickly regulate the level in rivers and the storage of water in reservoirs.

An important direction is the combination of innovations with environmentally friendly construction.

This concept is well implemented in the Room for the River project in the Netherlands, a government design plan implemented in 2015. The project not only widened the riverbed to prevent it from overflowing, but also created new ecosystems.

In the same Netherlands, not far from Amsterdam, the smart Dutch came up with a way to avoid problems from flooding – they started building houses right on the water. The “water village” Schoonschip is built on piles driven into the river bed.

Ecological flooded parks are another innovative solution that allows for the movement of excess water volumes if necessary. It is a popular solution in world practice.

In Russia, in 2022, they began to implement an interesting project in Novosibirsk - a park in the floodplain of the Kamenka River, which can serve as an example of competent design in a floodplain flood zone.

The idea of the park improvement is to form a landscape and walking area flooded during spring floods. Functionally, the park zoning is built in accordance with annual fluctuations in the water level. In the parts flooded during spring floods, there are no significant objects - no playgrounds or sports grounds, no paths. The same scheme should be applied to the design of settlements in areas that are dangerous during spring floods.

The Netherlands has excellent experience in constructing extensive systems of dams and locks. In accordance with the Delta Plan project, which was implemented in 1986, dams and weirs blocked the mouths of rivers flowing into the North Sea. The total length of the dams was about 30 km. In order to avoid environmental damage, a 30- to 50-meter-high surge barrier was erected at the mouth of the Eastern Scheldt instead of a dam. It consists of concrete supports with steel gates between them - they close when there is a threat of flooding.

In Japan, in addition to the fact that the country has a complex, conscientiously verified flood risk warning system, there is an “eighth wonder of the world” – the Tokyo flood control collector Shutoken Gaikaku Hosuiro (G-Cans).

The world’s largest flood control reservoir is designed to protect Japan’s capital from flooding due to rising river and groundwater levels following heavy rainfall or typhoons.

For many years, the outskirts of Tokyo have been subject to serious flooding. The country’s capital is surrounded by large rivers - Tone, Edogawa and Arakawa, and the terrain is similar to a large bowl that easily accumulates water.

The Tokyo Collector consists of three types of reservoirs for collecting and storing flood water. They are fed by water conduits from five small rivers. This is a widely branched underground system of tunnels and reservoirs that accumulate excess water during floods and typhoons. The structures of the giant collector are located underground at a depth of 50 meters. The above-ground part of the structure is the control building.

The underground sewer system took more than 10 years to build. The creation of this engineering marvel has resulted in a dramatic reduction in flood damage over the past two decades.

Even poor countries are trying to come up with ways to protect themselves from floods. In Bangladesh, they are building elevated temporary shelters to protect crops and people’s property during a disaster.

The global community uses the Flash Flood Risk Assessment System (FFRS). This is an international methodology for accurately predicting the occurrence of flood zones.

Effective flood protection requires a comprehensive approach: from the use of the latest technical developments to the integration of nature conservation strategies. Innovations play a key role here. Successful resistance to natural disasters is only possible at the state level, provided that the efforts of the entire world community are united and innovative solutions in this area are continuously developed.

The state and municipalities must invest in the latest surveillance/monitoring systems and modern flood control technologies.

Countries that regularly experience this natural disaster or are at risk need to create a single community, organization, institute where specialists will share experiences and develop innovative methods of preventing and combating floods and floods. It will be easier and more civilized to confront this phenomenon with the whole world.

Floods are not a problem of a specific country, but a global phenomenon, a global problem, and we need to fight it together against the backdrop of climate change.

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