Pilot Sites - Prague
Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic with about 1.5 million inhabitants. It is located at the river Vltava (Moldava). In 2002, Prague received significant damage from what were deemed to be the worst floods to hit the capital in 200 years. Among the regions of the capital city most severely affected were: Karlín, Kampa and Holešovice, where there was significant risk of building collapse. Most of Prague's art work was saved due to advanced warning of high water levels; however, there was significant damage to the Prague metro subway system whose tunnels were completely flooded.
There are several kinds of local flood protection measures in Prague including lines of mobile barriers, which are used uniformly on the entire area of Prague, primarily in the historic urban centre. The total length of these mobile barriers is about 7 km in Prague. The dam bar system was created by the firm Eko-System and was finished only 5 months before the flood in 2002. If a flood is announced in time, appropriate precautions can be taken. There is planned every year training for the correct installation of the mobile barriers in case of a flood.
The main aspects of relevance to the FloodProBE work programme are:
- Concepts and technologies for multifunctional flood defences (Task 4.1)
- Dissemination of the best practices - use of demountables (Task 6.2)
- Use and application of geophysical methods (Task 3.2)
