Checking a Culvert Suitability for Flood Wave Routing Within the Framework of the EU Flood Directive

Flooding is an international problem that represents the most common and destructive of all weather-related natural hazards. Moreover, man-made interventions such as deforestation, clearance of land and the poor design of hydraulic works such as bridges and culverts can often intensify that risk. This paper demonstrates a complete hydraulic study that was performed in a culvert located in Loforrema torrent (N. Greece) so as to examine its suitability for the flood wave routing of different discharges. The hydraulic model HEC-RAS was employed in order to compute the water surface level in the culvert location for flood events with probabilities of 10, 100 and 500 years. The results illustrated that, under all cases, the culvert overflowed putting in great danger the passing vehicles and citizens. Finally, the necessity of complete hydraulic studies is highlighted in order to support decisions in the dimensioning of a bridge in the same location, which it will be sufficient enough to deliver low probability flood events.