Most often, floods are caused by melting snow and ice accumulations (about 70-75% of cases). Floods caused by ice floes are difficult to predict: the rate of water level rise is determined not by days, but by hours. It will be even more difficult to estimate the size and frequency of such floods in the future, under changing climate conditions. As a result, the Interreg project “Ice-jam flood risk management in Latvian and Lithuanian regions with respect to climate change” (ICEREG) was initiated, which aims to improve ice flood risk management.
on April 3th the kick-off meeting of the project took place in Riga. During the meeting, project managers, communication specialists and project experts of the three organizations implementing the project met. Project manager Tatjana Kolcova introduced the main aspects of the work plan and the deadlines. During the discussions, the participants discussed what data is most important in the study of historical ice floe floods, how experts will be trained to use modern digital ice floe modeling tools. It was discussed how the knowledge will be transferred to interested organizations and local government representatives.
“The biggest advantage of this meeting was getting to know experts from various organizations and sharing their experiences. In the future, this will help to solve the project’s tasks more effectively” – said the head of the LEI Hydrology Laboratory, dr. Jūratė Kriaučiūnienė.
The project is carried out together with the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology centre and Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service under the Ministry of
Environment.
The Project is funded by the European Union’s Interreg VI-A Latvia–Lithuania Programme 2021–2027
More information: https://www.lei.lt/en/projektas/icereg/
