SEPTEMBER 2010 FLOODS: MEASUREMENTS, NOTIFICATION ABOUT THE FLOODS AND THE COURSE OF FLOODS

Abstract

The floods that occurred between the 17^th and the 19^th September are considered to be one of the largest in Slovenia over a several years-long observation period. During two flood waves, on 18 and 19 September, the majority of Slovenian rivers flooded. The strongest floods were in Western Slovenia (the rivers Savinja, Sava and Krka in its lower current). Large urban surfaces in most parts of the country were flooded and so were the karst fields and the Ljubljana Moore. Prognostic services at the Slovenian Environmental Agency issued a timely warning about the floods and provided up-to date public information about the weather and hydrological activities and the issue of warnings. Due to the present state of the flood hazard the text warnings were supplemented with the HYDROALARM map of threats. In addition to the prognostic part, two teams played an important role in the field. They performed measurements of the high water discharges which are of great importance to hydrotechnical science. The article presents a short description of the meteorological circumstances that resulted in the floods, the changing of discharges by giving estimates of high water peaks and the performance of hydrometrical and prognostic services on the Slovenian Environmental Agency. A more detailed analysis of this flood event is described in the article Comparison of Floods in September 2010 with Registered Historic Flood Events.