18th April 2014
Video clip Twinning ˝Floods˝
Watch video clip Twinning "Floods" on Youtube
4th December 2013
Presentation of flood maps of the Kupa river in Karlovac
Interim results of the project were presented to local stakeholders from the Karlovac area. The meeting was held in the Small Town Hall of the city and held on invitation of the Deputy Mayor of Karlovac Mr Dubravko Delíć. Apart from experts from Croatian Waters, Austria and the Netherlands the meeting was attended by representatives of the emergency and rescue forces, institutions and organisations dealing with nature protection as well as representatives of the County and the City of Karlovac dealing with flood risk management.
After presenting the Twinning project and the meeting programme, the participants were invited to physically position themselves as individual actors in the field of flood risk management. This positioning showed that the Croatian Waters branch office Karlovac is backed up by the locals (municipality, civil protection), while the nature protection was a bit further away. People were close to each other. Croatian Waters headquarters looked to the branch office Karlovac and was backed up by the Twinning team.
The flood hazard and risk maps presented show a flood scenario with a statistical return period of hundred years. The maps were found to be useful for example for regional rescue services and physical planning. It was recommended to:
- Include the mapped information also in the geographical information system of the National Protection and Rescue Directorate.
- Increase the practical use for the local community by not only depicting water depths on the hazard map but also showing water levels in order to know safe building altitudes.
- Use also other information for flood risk management like soil conditions and local hydrology during the period of the year preceding a high water.
- Update the maps regularly.
After the break possible flood risk reduction measures for the area were briefly discussed, followed by a very interactive session (“Sketch and Match”) of 40 minutes where the participants developed more ideas and possible priorities for flood risk reduction in the area.
Map resulting from Sketch ‘n Match exercise:
The meeting in Karlovac helped to create a good understanding and basis for the implementation of the European Floods Directive in Croatia. This will contribute to the preparation of the Flood risk management plan in 2014 and to future public consultation.
12th November 2013
Steering Committee Meeting 3
On 12 November 2013 the 3rd Steering Committee Meeting of the Twinning Project on the Development of Flood Hazard Maps and Flood Risk Maps in the Republic of Croatia took place in the project office at Croatian Waters. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the activities undertaken during the 3rd quarter of the project implementation covering the period from 17 July – 16 October 2013 and planning for the next quarter.
The meeting was opened by Mr Edo Dijkman, MS Project Leader, and Director of the Dutch Government Service for Land and Water Management followed by a presentation giving brief information about the activities implemented during the reporting period by Mr Mario Cerutti, Resident Twinning Advisor. He reported that the project has followed the work plan with no delay during the period under review and that project resources were mobilised by all involved parties, MS and BC. The RTA assessed that at this stage of the project sufficient work has been done and capacity built so that the BC can start with the implementation of the second step (flood mapping) of the European Floods Directive.
A possible use of project savings was discussed and a list of potential additional activities which could contribute to the contracted benchmarks has been drafted. It was recommended to further elaborate these proposals and prepare more concrete estimates of associated costs for a decision by the next SCM.
17th October 2013
Workshop III "Flood Forecasting and Early Warning"
About 30 representatives from targeted groups participated in the workshop, mainly from the Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia (MHSC), the Hydroelectric Company - Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP), Hrvatske vode (Croatian Waters, CW), universities, and consultancies.
In the first part of the workshop, the current situation as regards flood forecasting and early warning in Austria, France, the Netherlands and Croatia was presented. The participants worked then in an interactive session organised in mixed groups in three rounds. In the first round they explored wishes and needs to improve the current situation. In the second round they identified what CW, MHSC and HEP can do or deliver and in the last round they tried to match the needs with the deliverables. A very good match is possible.
The main recommendations for a better flood forecasting and early warning system are:
- Better coordination between the main institutions. Subjects are for instance data exchange, knowledge, definition of priorities in developments for flood forecasting and initiation of common projects. The workshop proposed that an inter-organisational body of experts should be set up and that cooperation agreements between the organisations should be drafted.
- Development of an integrated collaboration between Croatian partners and neighbouring countries for data and information exchange.
- Development of flood forecasting models within EU-funded projects. This should be initiated by MHSC and CW and include an extension of existing flood forecasting models to the Sava and Mur river sections in Croatia.
- Development of a user-friendly system for informing the media and public on the basis of already existing tools (like social networks, smartphones etc.). This can best be done within a partnership between MHSC, CW and NPRD (National Protection and Rescue Directorate).
- Take benefit of consultants and experts from the universities and their deep knowledge in flood related processes.
