<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The Bavarian Danube River has experienced numerous large flood events in recent years which make flood management an urgent matter. The propagation of flood waves along the river is heavily influenced by controlled and natural flood retention. Over the past centuries, natural flood retention areas were lost due to river training, and the hydraulic characteristics of the channel-flood plain system were modified. The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of river training on the flood retention characteristics along the Bavarian Danube. Systematic two-dimensional hydrodynamic modelling shows that extreme floods are attenuated more strongly in the present state of the channel-flood plain system than they were historically. This is because the retention areas are filled later during the event, so the attenuation effect is much larger for the same magnitude of the retention volume. Natural flood retention is therefore not an effective management option for reducing extreme floods on the Bavarian Danube. Controlled flood retention measures provide a higher efficiency regarding peak attenuation to retention volume ratio. On the other hand, the delay of flood peaks due to natural retention may be beneficial for the superposition of the flood waves with contributions from downstream tributaries.</p></abstract>

The Bavarian Danube River has experienced numerous large flood events in recent years which make flood management an urgent matter. The propagation of flood waves along the river is heavily influenced by controlled and natural flood retention. Over the past centuries, natural flood retention areas were lost due to river training, and the hydraulic characteristics of the channel-flood plain system were modified. The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of river training on the flood retention characteristics along the Bavarian Danube. Systematic two-dimensional hydrodynamic modelling shows that extreme floods are attenuated more strongly in the present state of the channel-flood plain system than they were historically. This is because the retention areas are filled later during the event, so the attenuation effect is much larger for the same magnitude of the retention volume. Natural flood retention is therefore not an effective management option for reducing extreme floods on the Bavarian Danube. Controlled flood retention measures provide a higher efficiency regarding peak attenuation to retention volume ratio. On the other hand, the delay of flood peaks due to natural retention may be beneficial for the superposition of the flood waves with contributions from downstream tributaries.

Effect of river training on flood retention of the Bavarian Danube

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Effect of river training on flood retention of the Bavarian Danube"}

The Bavarian Danube River has experienced numerous large flood events in recent years which make flood management an urgent matter. The propagation of flood...

Effect of river training on flood retention of the Bavarian Danube

Published Online: Oct 21, 2016

Page range: 349 - 356

Received: Dec 01, 2015

Accepted: May 17, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/johh-2016-0035

Keywords
Flood retention, Flood plain, Inundation areas, Flood management, Hydrodynamic modelling

© 2016 Daniel Skublics et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Effect of river training on flood retention of the Bavarian Danube

Published Online: Oct 21, 2016

Page range: 349 - 356

Received: Dec 01, 2015

Accepted: May 17, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/johh-2016-0035

KeywordsFlood retention, Flood plain, Inundation areas, Flood management, Hydrodynamic modelling

© 2016 Daniel Skublics et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Flood retention, Flood plain, Inundation areas, Flood management, Hydrodynamic modelling