Evaluation of Different Simulation Methods for Analyzing Flood Scenarios in the Danube Delta

The present work is focused on the analysis of flood scenarios for the settlements near the Danube discharge area into the Black Sea. From this perspective, the aim of the research is the development of flood extension maps for localities in the Danube Delta. The emphasis is on collecting the data and information needed for the entire analysis process, such as hydrological data on Danube flows and water levels (which were analyzed for 51 years), topo-bathymetric data (where 1685 cross sections were processed, measured on an 87-km section of the Danube), a digital terrain model (DTM), and others. Two methods of flood scenario analysis for the localities targeted were used in this paper. The first method was an analysis of the flood scenarios by modeling a real scenario, where it was supposed that a 20 m breach appeared in the dam which protects the localities and remained present for 24 h. The second method consisted of a Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis (static from a hydraulic point of view), where the maximum water level was superimposed over the DTM. This corresponded to a scenario in which the breach in the flood-control levee remains present for a longer period. The validated results show that the dynamic method is more efficient than the static method, both in terms of estimated flooded surfaces and in terms of simulation accuracy (taking into account more input parameters than the static method). Thus, from the obtained simulations it was observed that applying the dynamic method resulted in smaller flooded surfaces in the settlements analyzed than when considering the static method. In some cases, the differences between the flooded surfaces reached up to about 22%. This information is important and of general interest since it can be used in various fields of work, such as flood defense strategies, and investment promotion activities in the Danube discharge area or similar locations.