Two-dimensional hydraulic modeling for flood assessment of the Rio Rocha, Cochabamba, Bolivia.
2014
Myrland, Johanna
Historically humans have settled in river valleys, which has made flooding a natural hazard for human communities. This is also the situation in the valley of Cochabamba, which is frequently affected by floods. Therefore it is of high relevance to assess and manage the flood risk in order to reduce the impact in the affected areas. For this purpose hydraulic simulations were performed with the two-dimensional model Iber. The study area includes 17 kilometers of the main river, Rio Rocha, and its tributaries. The data used in the project was elevation data of high resolution and computed hydrographs. Field work and sensitivity analysis were performed to evaluate the result. The model was used to describe the dynamics of the Rio Rocha and its tributaries during flooding, such as flow path and water levels. The simulations showed that flooding mainly occurs in the tributaries and at eleven other sites without a clear riverbank. Most of the area affected by flooding is agricultural land, but also residential areas and infrastructure were also at risk. The flood duration shown to be longest for agricultural land, which can lead to major crop damage due to anoxic condition. Even though a smaller part of the affected area is residential land, the urbanization in this area is predicted to increase and more land may be settled in the near future.This thesis, along with other studies, highlights the importance of high resolution mesh to perform a hydraulic simulation with a two-dimensional model and the need of data to validate the result.
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