Estonian Fluvial Water Bodies and Inundation Directive

Abstract

Report, according to the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) with insurance purposes was completed in Estonia, 2016. The output of this work fulfilled the Directive targets to produce the flood maps of inland water bodies, with return periods of 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 years. The flood maps were created in ArcMap10.2.2 and ArcHydro environments, based on data of absolute maximum water levels (WLs) of Estonian state hydrological network. Created 834 flood maps based on data of 152 gauging stations: flood maps of 37 fluvial water systems and 8 standing water bodies. The flood heights with corresponding return periods were obtained from probability analysis of WLs data. Obtained results illustrate that the higher risk for the floods is expected at intersections of branching streams in Low-Estonia and upland margins of High Estonia. Before completion of the report, the existing flood maps covered only a small fraction of Estonia, i.e., territory of 17 cities only. Developed by us the flood map creation tool, is simple, allows modelling and visualising both the flood heights and corresponding overflows of watercourses over the whole country. However, the outcome depends on the availability of hydrological data and the quality of digital elevation models.