We were appointed to provide technical advisory and project management services to the province’s Regional Development Agency to assist in developing a programme for tackling immediate and longer term reconstruction and damage rehabilitation in areas affected by the flood.
Rapid assessment
The first step was to undertake a systematic aerial survey of the peak 1 in 100 year flood on the Elbe River and upper catchment affected by flash floods and landslides. A light aircraft and hand-held camera were used to document the extent of flooding and associated damage. This enabled us to rapidly assess the flood damage, prepare a preliminary map showing the scale of the problem and present this with accompanying photographic documentation to the government’s flood crisis committee.
We then helped prepare a programme for flood damage rehabilitation and reconstruction in Ústecký Kraj. This comprised an action plan with immediate priorities for rebuilding engineering structures and other rehabilitation interventions, plus a long term masterplan covering a wide range of aspects such as the assessment of land use and flood retention areas and the influence on flooding of natural and man-made features. Our work on the masterplan included identifying critical lands causing flash floods and landslides in the upper catchment and flood zones for specific scenarios in the lower watershed. We also developed a GIS based flood prevention and rehabilitation management information system.