# A Practical Approach on Reducing the Flood Impact: A Case Study from Romania
## 3 Results and Discussion
In the second scenario, the decrease is 5.5 times with respect to the current situation. The economic benefit of building a bridge with a higher opening must be evaluated after comparing the estimated cost of such a project with the possible loss in the case of a flood. Figures 11 and 12 represent the 3D maps for Scenarios 1 and 2. An aspect that deserves to be discussed in the flood risk evaluation is the influence of different factors on the flood's apparition and propagation. In this article, we did not consider all of them (like climate, vegetation, lithology, slope, soil type, land use, profile curvature, etc.). Each factor and its relative importance with respect to the others responsible for such a hazard must be assessed after a rigorous study of the catchment characteristics. Such research was performed for the Varbilau basin considering the slope, curvature, lithology, direction of the repetitive torrential rains, directions of the flat zones, precipitation, convergence index, configuration of sub-basins, soil, and land use [29]. Based on the simulated floods, the susceptibility in the region has also been studied after computing a flood potential index (FPI). We also [31] proposed an extended FPI calculated based on 12 themes (slope, aspect, hypysometry, convergence index, drainage density, topographic wetness index, profile curvature, catchment shape index, precipitation, soil, lithology, and land use) for evaluating the flood impact in the same zone. A weight was attached to each thematic layer using a multicriteria selection procedure and the resulting flood map was cross-validated using the maps available at inundati.ro (including the flood zones--simulated for a return period of 100 years). The findings from [29; 31] indicated a highly susceptible area to flooding, Dumbravesti. Still, the impact of the embankment built in Safarelanc (on the Varbilau River) on the flood hazard was never assessed. Given that a certain problem can be approached in different ways and there is no 'best method', the present research proposed a solution for a practical problem, filling a gap in the knowledge related to the study zone. The results of this study confirm the findings of [PERSON] et al. [19], showing the significant impact of the embankment's existence on the flooding apparition. It is in agreement with the research of [PERSON] et al. [18] that emphasized the necessity of careful analysis before building the railway infrastructure such that it does not contribute to producing disasters. Contrary to [PERSON]'s conclusions [20] that presented the benefit of the embankments' existence, one may remark the negative impact of the bridge and embankment on the research zone due to its inappropriate design. Moreover, our results are in concordance with those of [PERSON]  
Figure 12: 3D representation of the hypothetical situation for a flood with an exceedance probability of 1%. (**a**) View from the south of the flooded surface, embankments, extended bridge, and affected buildings with red; (**b**) zoom in from the northwest on the 10-pillar bridge. et al. [17], showing that the bridge of Dumbravesti can represent a vulnerability point if the embankment is broken during a flooding event, which could have catastrophic effects on the population downstream. This research shows the importance of considering elements like embankments and levees in models for accurately simulating and forecasting catastrophic hydrological events, as it was also remarked by [PERSON] [21]. To expand this research, an index can be developed taking into account the existing index FPI [29,31] and also creating a new value based on the flood surface, depth, velocity, proximity from the flooded area, and road accessibility for emergency units. This can show the exposure of buildings to flooding and how vulnerable they are.