# A Practical Approach on Reducing the Flood Impact: A Case Study from Romania
## 3 Results and Discussion  
Figure 7(a) contains the flooding simulation in Scenario 1. In this case, the flooded zone is extended especially to the right bank of the Varbilau River (that flows south towards Dumbravesti). This situation is favored by the existence of two embankments that act as a barrier and the small opening of the bridge (only 100 m). Thus, the flow space is reduced in the analyzed case, favoring the flood apparition. Suppose the embankment is shortened and replaced by a bridge with ten pillars (the existing three plus seven new ones for extending the actual length of the bridge). In that case, the situation improves, and the flooded surface is significantly reduced (Figure 7(b)). In Scenario 1, there are flooded buildings--houses and annexes--in Dumbravesti and Sfarleanca (Figure 8(a)). In Dumbravesti, some greenhouses are also affected [52]. Also, an important surface of agricultural land is covered by water. Figure 6: Flooded surfaces in Scenarios 1 and 2. In Scenario 2, when the bridge is extended, there are no flooded buildings in Dumbravesti, whereas in Sfarleanca there are some (Figure 8b), but fewer than in the first situation. In the event of a flood with a probability of exceedance of 1%, Sfarleanca would be isolated because the communal road that connects the locality with Dumbravesti is the only access road to the village. Figure 9 shows what happens in the intermediary case. Figure 8: (**a**) Flooded buildings in Scenario 1 and (**b**) Scenario 2 (a bridge with ten pillars). Figure 7: Flooding with 1% probability of exceedance in (**a**) Scenario 1; (**b**) Scenario 2. In the first scenario, the maximum water depth is 4.2 m, and the mean depth is 1.24 m. The maximum velocity is 4.45 m/s, and the mean is 2 m/s. It was observed that buildings in Sfarleanc are situated in a zone with a velocity that ranges from 1.52 m/s to 4.45 m/s and a water depth from 1.18 to 2.46 m. The higher values are located towards the south (Figure 10). This means that the respective settlements have a higher exposure to flooding. Simulations were conducted for a water discharge of 300 m\({}^{3}\) (150 m\({}^{3}\)/s) resulting in maximum water depth of 3.69 m (3.11 m), average depths of 1.02 m (0.84 m), a maximum velocity of 3.86 m/s (3.23 m/s), and an average velocity of 1.7 m/s (0.85 m/s). Table 1 contains the estimated damages. In the first scenario, the number of flooded buildings is 104, much higher than in the second scenario, where only 29 buildings would be flooded [52]. Also, the flooded surface of land would decrease from 0.66 km\({}^{2}\) (the actual case) to only 0.38 km\({}^{2}\) (Scenario 2). More than 10,000 m\({}^{2}\) would be flooded in the current situation, whereas in Scenario 2, the surface is only 1729 m\({}^{2}\). Figure 10: Location of flooded houses in Scenario 1 and distribution of low and high depths and velocities. Figure 9: Flooded buildings for the intermediary scenario (a bridge with seven pillars). In the intermediary scenario, 46 buildings would be flooded, representing 3143 m\({}^{2}\). The flooded area would be 0.44 km\({}^{2}\). The comparison of the intermediary scenario with the actual one shows that the number of flooded buildings would decrease more than 2.26 times, the surface of the flooded buildings would diminish 3.15 times, and the total flooded surface would be 1.5-times lower in the last case. The situation is much better in the second one compared to the first. Scenario 2 proposes the extension of the bridge to 280 m (ten pillars instead of the existing three) and shortening the embankments to reduce the flooding surface in case of a hazard with a 100-year return period, similar to the findings from [53]. Thus, the active drainage section would increase through a larger opening, and the hazard would diminish significantly. The evaluation of the economic losses (in EUR) is presented in the last row of Table 1. In the intermediary scenario, the losses are more than 3-times lower than in Scenario 1.