Vasile PLENICEANU, Oana IONUŞ, Mihaela LICURICI
Abstract: Among the natural hazards that confront the human civilisation and its activities, floods represent hydro-meteorological phenomena with high frequency and with destructive effects, both in the economic and in the social sectors.
The Oltenian sector of the Danube Floodplain develops between Drobeta-Turnu Severin and Corabia, being 335 kilometres long and covering a surface of about 105 thousand hectares, which represents around 1/5 of the entire surface of the floodplain displayed by the Danube on the Romanian territory. Under the conditions of this geographical space, the Danube Floodplain presents high vulnerability.
It is necessary to explain the somewhat differentiated flooding of the Oltenian sector of the Danube Floodplain on the two sub-sectors: the one stretching between Drobeta-Turnu Severin and Golenţi – Calafat, as compared to the other, which extends downstream of Calafat, all the way to Corabia and Islaz. Also, it is important to show the reasons that led to the flooding of certain human settlements located within the southern sub-sector, on the morphological levels offered by the low and inferior terraces of the Danube, respectively the settlements that exist between Rast and the confluence between the Olt and the Danube rivers. Finally, taking into account the stipulations of the new National Strategy for Risk Management, we shall formulate certain recommendation to increase the resilience of the area to flood phenomena.