Flood protection measures in the Republic of Croatia

Flood protection in the Republic of Croatia is a very complex process due to the vast hilly and mountainous areas with high rainfall intensities, large lowland river valleys, cities and valuable goods of the potentially affected areas, and lack of built and maintained protective systems. It is estimated that flooding potentially threatens about 15% of state land territory of which the greater part is now protected with different levels of security. Natural floods which occur in Croatia can be divided into five basic groups: river flooding due to heavy rains and/ or rapid melting snow and torrential flooding of small streams due to the short-term high-intensity rainfall, flooding in karst areas due to heavy rains and/or rapid snow melt and insufficient capacity of permeable natural sinks, flooding inland waters in lowland areas, glacial floods. Flood protection measures to be implemented are: structural measures and non-structural measures.