The Tisza river basin covers 157,000 km2 over 5 countries (Slovakia 10%, Ukraine 8%, Romania 46%, Hungary 29%, Serbia 7%).
The pilot site is situated along the right bank of the River Tisza, downstream the city of Szolnok. The area of the pilot site covers 125 km2 and includes 7 communities: Lakitelek, Tiszakécske, Tiszabög, Tiszajenő, Tiszavárkony, Vezseny, Tószeg. There is significant agricultural production in this area, including vineyards, orchards and arable land. Industrial activities are growing in the Tiszakécske region and tourism is rapidly growing especially in the larger holiday resorts of Lakitelek-Tőserdő and Tiszakécske-Kerekdomb. |
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The communities along the River Tisza are at significant risk from flooding. In Hungary alone there are over 400 communities housing 1.2 million people on a floodplain of approximately 16,000 km2 protected by nearly 3,000 km of flood defences.
The upper parts of the river (outside Hungary) suffer from flash flooding, while the middle and lower parts of the river suffer from very high and long lasting flooding caused by the combined effects of upstream flows.
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| River network and flood defences in the Tisza Valley in Hungary |
Dike failure at Tarpa, Upper-Tisza, Hungary, March 2001 |
The study involves VITUKI, Budapest, Hungary; H-EURAqua, Szentendre, Hungary; Middle-Tisza District Environment and Water Directorate, Szolnok, Hungary.
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| The railway bridge of Zagyva River at Szolnok, April 2000 |
Pulling down houses to protect Szolnok city, April 2000 |
Largest sand boiling in Central Europe, Tiszasas, April 2000 |
The Tisza River Basin is one of the two large river basins where the methodologies developed in the FLOODsite project will be tested.
The pilot study will concentrate on the following issues:
- development of river basin based, precautionary and sustainable flood management strategies based on the investigation and analysis of previous floods
- fostering international co-operation especially in the fields of monitoring, data exchange and methods of flood forecasting and warning; and
- application within the pilot site of general vulnerability analysis techniques (using flood hazard mapping) developed in FLOODsite to identify the effectiveness of flood management strategies.
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| Temporary heightening at Tiszasüly, April 2000 |
Supporting ribs to protect sliding dike slope at Tiszasüly, April 2000 |
| How will the study benefit the people of the Tisza River Basin? |
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The study will be of great benefit to the local communities along the river. The study will provide a better understanding of how floods happen and how large these floods will be, which will improve the accuracy of flood forecasting and increase the amount of time available before the flood for flood warning, evacuation, construction of temporary defences, etc. The study will also look at new strategies for reducing peak flows in the river by giving more space to the river for storing flood waters.
Further details of this study can be found here.
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