Extreme hydro-meteorological phenomena have become more frequent in recent years compared to the year 2000 in Europe, including Romania. Flooding occurs from heavy rainfalls favored by natural and anthropogenic factors such as the valley’s flat slope or settlements situated near the river. Ţigăneşti and Brânceni villages (from southern Romania) are no exception and have been affected by floods many times. One of these events is that from 2005, when the flow reached 676 m3/s (a value 80 times higher than the normal flow of the Vedea River) in Brȃnceni. This paper aims to present a simulation of the flood that occurred during 3–6 July 2005 and its impact on the settlements, roads, and land, using field observation (including some from 2005), GIS software (ArcGIS), software for flood simulations (HEC-RAS—Hydrologic Engineering Center River Analysis System), and flow data from the Romanian National Institute of Hydrology. Simulations were run in HEC-RAS. The obtained flooded areas imported back into GIS (Geographic Information System) were used to determine the area covered by water and the length of affected roads. The surface and number of flooded buildings were calculated using different tools from ArcMap. Results were interpreted, commented on, and compared with data and maps provided by the Romanian Water National Administration. The simulation shows that the villages would be protected from the flood by building a levee along the Vedea River. Significant losses can be prevented, and money can be saved.

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Identification of areas susceptible to flash floods is essential to establish measures that will help the population in case of a hazard. Therefore, the purpose of the present article is to identify the areas that present a high susceptibility to flash-floods in the Vărbilău catchment. The area, located in the Prahova region, was chosen due to the complexity of the hydrological phenomena. To determine the susceptibility to flash floods, the Flash Flood Susceptibility Index (FFSI) was calculated by integrating ten factors that play an essential role in the flash floods formation. Areas located downstream and in the middle of Vărbilău basin present a low risk, while locations in the northwest (upstream of Luţu Roşu and Scurteşti) present a high risk to flash-floods due to steep slope, narrow valleys, solid rocks, and land use.

Assessing the vulnerability of buildings is very important to determine the settlements affected by floods since authorities can take measures before actual flooding takes place. The present research aims to identify areas affected by flooding in Cernăteşti. The village is located in an area where floods are favored by the elongated shape of the catchment, the horizontal slope, relatively small distance between the hills bordering the valley, water accumulation resulting from flash floods formed upstream, and heavy local rainfall. Field observations, GIS techniques, and mathematical calculations have been used in this research. Flood simulations have been made to determine the degree (number of houses and roads affected, estimated losses in lei) of impact at flows with different probabilities of exceedance (10%, 5%, 2%, and 1%). Depending on the exposure, calculated using factors like distance from the river or construction material, the buildings on the left bank of Slănic are more affected and the flooded area is more extensive. Buildings in the south-eastern, north-eastern, and north-western parts of the flooded area are highly vulnerable, but most of the other settlements are less vulnerable.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).