Pilot-scale application of mobile barrier systems for flood protection of urban areas. Assessment and evaluation of their interoperability in the urban area of Serres, Greece.

Urban flooding occurs to  populated and build environments when there is excess water due to intense rainfall, extreme river flows, or storm occurance. Flood protection procedures and processes are  important and critical tools in flood-vulnerable and flood-prone areas. The consequences of the occurrence of such phenomena can have a seriously negative impact on a social, economic and environmental level. The first two categories are particularly affected in urban environments, where flooding might lead to severe casualties. The assessemnt for  optimal use of mobile systems of mobile flood protection dams/barrires as  short-term flood prevention and non-permanent/ nonstructural measures in combination with the permanently existing protection works and infrastructures in the urban environment is the subject of this study.

As a field of application (case study) of this research and the evaluation of different flooding and intervention scenarios, a stream section of an important transboundary watercourse that flows through the city of Serres, Greece was chosen. For this stream, the river bed and the surrounding areas as well as the built environment and all the technical works along the stream were measured by land observation methods (topographic and remote sensing data).

In order to draw into conclusions, the assessment of the hydrological characteristics and the water flow characteristics of the stream and the catchment area was carried out. Then, the simulation of the hydraulic characteristics for the current state of the stream and for various different flooding scenarios through the use of mobile flood barriers/small dams of different types and geometrical characteristics was applied.

The result of the study has led to a “roadmap” of how, when and where non-permanent protection measures and can be implemented in urban environments, useful to local authorities and civil protection in charge.

The evaluation of the capacity and performance of mobile barrier systems (based on their characteristics) was carried out, in order to be  effectively used in varying flooding events, with different characteristics and in  site-specific locations in various scenarios, through hydraulic simulations. The results of the hydraulic simulations resulted in the barrier systems’ evaluation and the formation of a methodology, which concerns their application efficiency and their inter-operability in the pilot area, while determining the optimal management and the overall cost at the same time.