Maria Bostenaru Dan, 2012, Water ambivalence or natural hazards’ impact on riverine urban areas, in: Sârbu, Cătălin; Popa, Andreea, ‘Development opportunities for areas related to Danube river and Danube Delta’, Editura Universitara “Ion Mincu”, Bucharest
- Author : Maria Bostenaru Dan
- Year : 2012
- English Title : Water ambivalence or natural hazards' impact on riverine urban areas
- Published in Book : Development opportunities for areas related to Danube river and Danube Delta
- Pages : 112-121
- Abstract in English : Numerous cities have (re)discovered their waterside landscapes as urban space and use their landscapal, urban, and architectural potentials to make a riverine city attractive. The fact that some cities only turn today to their rivers lays in the fact that in the past centuries it seemed wiser to build far from the river - it is the case of for example Karlsruhe and the Rhine - as from the river not only blessing, but also danger came. The proposed presentation aims in a first stage to investigate this ambivalence: in the meaning of the water itself. For this purpose views from science and the arts will be embedded. For the science stay insights from engineering hydrology. For the arts stay (urban) landscape planning up to museum planning, ex. a museum of water (incl. aquaria), debating both the content and the container. In a second step the discussion will focus even more on dealing with disasters. Building along the river is not only hazardous in what concerns flooding risk, but also for earthquake impact. Long distance earthquakes can have disastrous effects on high-density urban settlements, if alluvial soil deposits amplify the ground motion, in the case of cities built on river banks. Regarding natural hazards protection a different ambivalence can be identified. Providing safe housing leads to partly antagonic construction requirements in case of envisaging reducing flood and earthquake impact (for example presence or absence of basement spaces). For the purpose of opening discussion along these lines each an introduction on physical flood vulnerability and physical earthquake vulnerability will be made.
- Outline in English : Introduction The heritage of riverine areas Vulnerability coming from water and vulnerability of the water habitat Differences in protection from flood and earthquake hazard Conclusions References