IMPACTS OF WATER POLICY AND FIGHT AGAINST FLOODS ON THE RIVER CHANNEL. THE CASE OF THE LOWER SIRET RIVER

Every water policies which are succeeded each other in the history, have left traces in memories such as in the landscapes. In the context of the implantation of EU Water Framework Directive and Flood Directive, the Romanian government establishes new strategies for water management. In order to better understand the territory in which these new logics are introduced and evaluate their significance, it is necessary to analyze and to spatialize the old strategy. This work focuses on the Lower Siret River, heavily arranged from 1970 to 1990, and especially on the villages of Bilieşti and Suraia. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the impacts, on this sector of 10 km length, of the 70’s water policy, on the channel planform and the floods nowadays. A GIS was developed to compare, over time, the evolution of the Lower Siret River, from 1940 to present, and to quantify these changes. The study of technical literature and various reports and laws made over this period, provide the analysis of the arrangement strategy. Finally, field surveys, reports of various arrangements, testimonials, from 2010 to 2012, have enhanced this work. This study shows the density of arrangements on a reduce area whose aim was to control and avoid all the harmful effects of the water, i.e. bank erosion or flood. This sector of the Siret River has undergone significant changes: the active zone decreased over 50%, the bed channelized is disconnected from the floodplain, etc … Many morphological dynamics were determined by floods (especially the July 2005 flood)