The development and application of a flood risk model for the Czech Republic

A flood risk model was developed for the Czech Republic to calculate the probability of insured losses from flood events. The model was GIS based, making use of a 100 m horizontal resolution DTM and a network of the major rivers in the country. A review of historical flooding was undertaken to define the worst and most widespread flood events. Synthetic flood events were generated based on a study of the spatial variation in magnitude of river flows from selected historical flood events going back to 1935. A total of 30 synthetic events were generated each providing peak flows at 25 gauging stations throughout the country. The flows were converted into flood levels using rating equations based on information provided by the Czech Hydrological and Meteorological Institute. The extent of and depth of flooding was mapped on a cell by cell basis by applying an automated procedure developed using the grid option within the Arc/Info GIS. The flood depths were combined with maps of the postal codes to define an average flood depth per post code. The model was calibrated using maps of the observed flood extents from 1997 and 2002.