RISCO DE INUNDAÇÃO NO MUNICÍPIO DE TORRES NOVAS (PORTUGAL)

Abstract

In Portugal, floods are the most recurrent and dangerous natural phenomena and represent a hight risk for the Human Being, endangering the safety of people and property and cause socio-economic damages. With this work we intend to evaluate the susceptibility to flood risk in the municipality of Torres Novas (Portugal) through the combination of heuristic and quantitative multi-criteria (HEC-RAS) models, validated with historical records published in newspapers and with field work. The results show that the areas of greatest susceptibility to floods are the valley of Almonda river, the marginal areas of the valley of the Ribeira do Alvorão and Ribeira da Bezelga, the depressed areas of the bottom of the valleys with streams of higher hierarchical order, the sectors of the confluence of major collectors and, finally, in urban areas, where the high rate of impermeability,, the occupation of the major channels beds full, together with the inadequate dimension of storm sewers promote the natural development of flash floods.