Vízügyi Közlemények, 2004 (86. évfolyam)

1-2. füzet - Tóth Sándor-Ijjas István: Árvízkezelés - európai trendek, hazai kihívások

Arx'íz kezelés - európai trendek, hazai kihívások 127 Flood management - European trends, Hungarian challenges by Sándor TÓTH and Dr. István IJJAS civil engineers The paper reviews the state, activities, principles and regulations of flood management of the near past in Europe and discusses in the light of these trends those of the Hungarian system of flood prevention, flood control and flood defence. European trends were discussed starting from the end of the 1990-ies. Detailed, in-depth analysis of the principles and objectives of the Water Framework Directive is given from the point of view of their (indirect) flood management implications and of the relating regulations and consequences. The conditions of accepting less strict environmental objectives are interpreted, along with those of postponing the related deadlines. The analysis includes the integrated solutions of the issues that expand beyond the borders of the European Community, along with the mechanisms of financing such solutions, including the system of social requirements. The paper presents the principles and main objectives of the document on the best practices of flood prevention and flood defence (BPD), which was developed with the help of the Water Directors of the EU. The details of the proposals of BPD for financing is described with special regard to the programme INTERREG HIB CADSES, the priority system of which is especially suitable for making integrated flood defence and land-use development project proposals. The principles and proposals of BPD for forming public awareness and inducing public participation are also described. The BPD gives special priority to preventive flood control plans with the help of land uses, which enhance the natural retention of water, and also to the development of forecasting and warning systems along with the provision of public information. Special emphasis is laid on the prevention of pollution that can be associated with floods. The emphasis on appropriate land use development can be also found in the subjects dealing with the estimation of flood risk and the decreasing of potential hazards. In discussing the structural flood control measures a warning is made, underlining that flood protection can never reach an absolute level and there always remains a certain risk of inundation. Consequently one shall always consider the "remaining risk" concept in the case of any flood defence strategy. Description of European trends closes with that of the Action Programme for Flood Risk Management, as launched under the Dutch leadership of the EU Commission. Regarding the lessons to be learned from the above described programmes in Hungary it is stressed that the proposals of the BPD for reducing runoff with the help of storage in hilly and mountainous land must be also considered in the fully Hungarian catchments and not only in the Carpathian mountains and in the foreign hilly areas. There are several negative examples for inappropriate landuse forms