FLOODS IN Societal and economic impacts and responses in the newspapers

M.Gaji ć-Čapka, R. Sokol Jurkovi ć, D. Nikoli ć, B. Čapka Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia, HR-10 000 , Gri č 3 e-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Contribut ion to the chapter : WG 5 – Societal and economical impacts , TTO7 – Task Team for Observation, Monitoring vulnerability factors

Damages caused by natural hazards Damages caused by natural hazards (1981-2010) Damages caused by floods Croatia, period 1981 -2010 Croatia, period 1981 -2010 OTHER CAUSES COMBINATION 5% 2%  The growing number of natural disasters in recent years is threatening FROST 7%  Spacious mountainous areas with high precipitation, wide valleys the world as a whole, and it is also not rare in Croatia climatic and seizmic of lowland watercourses, major cities and valuable assets in FLOOD 9% conditions. potentially threatened areas and insufficiently constructed and  The average damage during the last 30 years was determined to be US$ WILD FIRE 6% DROUGHT 39% maintained protection systems make Croatia very vulnerable to floods 247 millions per year (1.3% of GDP annually) (Figure 1) [1]. [2, 3, 4] .  About 80% of the total damage is caused by the direct impacts of natural  It is estimated that floods endanger over 15% of national inland hazards. EARTHQUAKE territory. The existing protection systems in Croatia are extremely 9%  They are also responsible for many untypical hazards such as wildfires, complex and comprise of a large number of regulative and protective water structures. landslides, plant diseases and pests as well as for the intensity of technical STORM, HAIL and technological disasters (Figure 2). 23%  Previous estimates of the damage after the flood all over the world,  The relationship between different natural hazards in particular year including Croatia, have shown that they were always much higher Figure 2. Types of natural hazards and their share during the long-term period in Croatia is very variable concerning frequency than the costs of implementation of preventive measures. in the total damage in Croatia, 1981-2010. of appearance and damage magnitude (Figure 3).  Flood damage and its share in GDP in Croatia during the last thirty years (1981-2010) show two picks, in 1989 and 2010 (Figure 4). The 1200 12 FLOOD DROUGHT STORM, HAIL EARTHQUAKE extensive flooding damages in 1989 were mainly connected with the WILD FIRE FROST OTHER CAUSES COMBINATION Total damage storm and heavy rainfall occurred on 3 to 4 July 1989 over the 1000 10 Relationship to GNP (%) 100 Medvednica and its surroundings, including the city of 90 800 8 80 Zagreb in the NW Croatia [3] . During the 2010 floods appeared all 70 over Croatia, especially along the Adriatic coast, affecting agricultural 600 6 60 50 areas in the Neretva River delta as well as the towns. 40

400 4 GDP (%)

Million USD 30 20 200 Flood damage 2.00 200 2 10 Relationship to GNP (%) 0 0 0 150 1.50 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009

1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 100 1.00 Figure 3. Types of natural hazards and their share in the

Year GDP (%) total damage in particular year in the period Million USD 50 0.50 Fig. 1. Damage caused by natural hazards and its relationship 1981-2010 in Croatia. to the gross domestic product for Croatia, 1981-2010. 0 0.00 Damages caused by floods 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 Counties along the Croatian Adriatic coast , period: 1995 - Year 2010 Figure 4. Flood damage and its share in GDP for Croatia, 1981- 2010.  The largest damage caused by floods in relation to total county damage 12 80 10 Primorje-Gorski kotar County (Figure 5) is indicated in the Lika-Senj county (3). It covers the part of the 70 8 2000-2010 6 60 coast and the islands with the mountainous hinterland of Lika characterized 4 50 Nof flood o. events 2 40 0 by high precipitation amounts and complex hydrological regime in this carst 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112 30 Months 20 region. No.of flood events 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  The second county in relation to the damages is Primorje-Gorski kotar 12 10 County Counties county located over the cyclogenetic area of Kvarner bay and the 8 CROATIA 6 4 mountainous area of Gorski kotar which has the largest amounts of No. of flood events 2 12 0 10 Šibenik-Knin County 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112 8 Months precipitation in Croatia and intense short-term rainfalls [5, 6, 7]. 6 12 4  The third county according to flood damages is -Neretva 10 Lika-Senj County No. of flood events 2 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112 6 Months county in the very southern part of the coast. It also has the highest 4 Nof flood o. events 2

0 absolute flood damage in million USD in analysed period 1995-2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112 Months (Figure 5, up-right panel). The often flooding in the town of Dubrovnik 12 12 10 County 10 Dubrovnik-Neretva County Figure 5. Types of natural hazards and their share in the total 8 8 during the rain showers causes high economic losses, but mainly due to 6 6 damage in counties along the Croatian eastern Adriatic coast, 4 4 Nof flood o. events 2 12 No. of flood events 2 the unconstructed or incomplete urban dranage system. On the other hand 0 10 Split- County 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112 1995-2010. 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112 Months Months this county covers the Neretva river valley with intense agricultural activity 6 4

Classified river floodings from No. of flood events 2 where flooding caused by heavy rains and Figure erosion 7. coThentribute percentage to the of high 0 the newspaper articles Responses in the newspapers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112 Months economic losses. river floods due to the Causes of floods catchment. Figure 6. Total number of flood events and throughout the year in Adriatic Black Sea catchment Croatian Counties at the eastern Adriatic coast and catalogued catchment  Meteorological and Hydrological service of Croatia (DHMZ) 45% 55% receives daily online newspaper articles which discuss events from from the newspaper articles for the period 2000-2010. the scope of DHMZ. According to the articles that reported on floods, except the flooding of the sea, there have been 334 Responses in the newspapers Classified floods from the newspaper floodings of different spatial and temporal scale and with very Counties along the Croatian Adriatic coast , period: 2000 -2010 2000-2010 articles, 2000-2010 different amounts of damage in the period 2000-2010.  Severe damage can be caused by flooding of the major rivers: The floods were mostly frequent in June, followed by August and Small floods the Danube, Sava, Drava and Mura river in the mainland, which September and they were mainly caused by abundant short-term 145 events belong to the Black Sea catchment, and the Neretva river which precipitation. flows into the . They have a source outside of the  In the counties that cover the coast and to some extend the Croatian territory, and the rise of the rivers levels and potential hinterland, the largest number of floodings in the 11-year period flooding, is maimly due to hydrological events in neighboring was reported in the southernmost counties: Split-Dalmatia (75 Figure 8. Classified floods in countries (, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina or even in cases) and Dubrovnik-Neretva (60 cases). These two counties are counties along the Croatian Large floods Intermediate floods 19 events 41 events the upper part of the river catchment in Germany, Austria or Italy). located in a area in which there are several underground eastern Adriatic coast.  There are the larger number of smaller watercourses, dry river rivers (eg Betina, Ponikva). It is often the case that after heavy bed, canals, lakes, karst springs and underground rivers that can rainfall, karst springs trigger off, water is poured onto the surface also cause flooding. and it overflows the surrounding area. These happened mostly  Causes of flooding are usually abundant rainfall (short- and long- frequent in August, September and November (11 cases per References: [1] Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Finance, Commission for assessment of damages caused by natural hazards: List of term), and snow melting. month) in Split-Dalmatia County, and in November (8 cases), damages caused by natural hazards, Annual reports.  In the case of abundant convective precipitation, a short-term and Decembe (8 cases) and January (9 cases) in Dubrovnik-Neretva [2] Čapka, B., 1998: Natural disasters and the role of the meteorological service in the implementation of protection policy measures (in Croatian). Proceedings of the Scientific meeting "Andrija Mohorovicic", 140 Anniversary, 235-244. spatially limited flooding appears. In the event of prolonged rainfall, County. [3] Čapka, B. et al., 2003: Report on Disaster and Emergency Management Summary for Croatia, 1-36 (manuscript). [4] Hrvatske vode, 2009: Strategija upravljanja vodama (Water management strategy), Hrvatske vode / Croatian Waters, the flooding is caused by this precipitation itself. There are also  These two counties are followed by Istria County and Zadar Zagreb, 52-57. swollen mountain streams, the river beds fill and pour. Floods in this County regarding the frequency of flooding. At the north, over the [5] Čapka, B., Gaji ć-Čapka, M., 1992: A case analysis of heavy rainfall causing flash floods. Theor. Appl. Climatol., 45, 77-82. [6] Gaji ć-Čapka, M., Ivan čan-Picek, B., 2000: Assessment of heavy rainfall. 3rd European Conference on Applied Climatology, case may affect the larger area. In the karst area, the springs and Istria peninsula, floodings are mostly often reported in September 16-20 Oct. 2000, Pisa, Italy, Book of abstracts, Florence, Institute of Agrometeorology and Environmental Analysis for Agriculture, 290, (CD ROM, Abs. Pos-7). rivers can also be activated. River spills are usually caused by (9 cases) folowed by August and November with 8 events per [7] Zaninovi ć, K., Gaji ć-Čapka, M., Per čec Tadi ć, M. et al, 2008: Klimatski atlas Hrvatske / Climate atlas of Croatia 1961- hydrological events in neighboring countries, and can be combined month. 1990., 1971-2000. Državni hidrometeorološki zavod / Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia, Zagreb, pp 200. [8] Barrera, A., M.C. Llasat y M. Barriendos, 2006: Estimation of the extreme flash flood evolution in Barcelona county from with hydrological events in Croatia. Such flooding can also affect  At the middle part of the coast in , September (9 1351 to 2005, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 6, 505-518. larger areas. cases) and December (7 cases) are the months when the largest  Snow melting, especially rapidly, can cause increased water number of floods appeared. levels of rivers, forming a torrential watercourse, lake level rise, and  71% of floods were classified as small floods, 20% as outbreaks of water from underground karstic spheres. intermediate floods and 9% as large floods according to the classification applied in [8] (Figure 8).