Turkey’s need for manual and general specifications for flood hazard mapping studies

Abstract

Flooding is a serious natural disaster in Turkey similar to rest of the world causing significant economical damage and loss of lives every year. Statistical analyses show that in Turkey, after the earthquake, flooding is the second most serious natural disaster in terms of life losses and economical damage. Unlike many other natural hazards, flooding is a natural hazard that can be forecasted and modeled ahead of time. Hence flooding can be prevented or the consequences can be reduced through proper planning. On the other hand, in Turkey detailed flood modeling and mapping is not common, and a manual and general specifications document for flood studies is not available. Yet for an effective, detailed and consistent flood hazard-mapping study there is a need for such a document. Actually, literature review shows that many other developed country do not have a detailed and comprehensive manual and general specifications document for flood studies. These countries started launching programs to standardize and extend the flood hazard mapping studies in the recent decade, after experiencing increasing number of flood hazards each year. In this study foremost from US, EU Member States, Australia, and Canada several references are reviewed. A current special specifications document for a flood hazard mapping study in Northern Turkey is considered as the reference from Turkey. The reviewed references are compared under basic components of a detailed flood hazard mapping study. These components are: 1. Hydrologic-hydraulic modeling and engineering methods. 2. Flood hazard mapping 3. Reporting of a flood study 4. Quality control measures Based on the evaluation of the comparison result, some recommendations are made for the issues that are considered to be included in a manual and general specifications document for flood hazard studies.