The European Directive 2007/60/CE, concerning the evaluation and management of flooding risks, requires a deterministic and quantitative approach. Accordingly, numerical modelling becomes essential in many hydraulic studies and design analysis.
The selection of the numerical model to be applied to all future hydraulic studies concerning the Flood Directive is expected to be completed before the end of 2011; MIKE FLOOD is already a standard in many Italian regions, and has officially been adopted by many River Basin Authorities.
In order to fulfil the requirements of this Directive, the river basin authorities of Po river and the Liri-Garigliano and Volturno rivers, being coordinators for the hydrographic districts of North and South Apennines respectively, organised training courses in the application of the MIKE FLOOD simulation code. The same Authorities have already been using MIKE FLOOD (2D numerical model) for many hydraulic studies.
The training course participants came from different public and private bodies: regions, provinces, civil protection centres, irrigation consortiums and river basin authorities. The participants are also technicians actively involved in all phases of the review of the River Basin Plans through the use of numerical modelling.
The training course for the North Apennine District was held has been in Parma, on 27- 29 April 2011 with an active participation of about 30 technicians, while the training course for the South Apennine District took place in Caserta, on 14- 16 June 2011 with an active participation of about 50 technicians.
After the courses, many other Authorities decided to adopt MIKE FLOOD as a standard for all studies concerning the Flood Directive; MIKE FLOOD is now the most frequently used 2D numerical model in Italy.