Bodrum September 22-23, 2015 Flood Disaster

Abstract

Floods cause significant damages in urban and rural areas. Bodrum city is of high importance for the tourism of Turkey. It suffers unavoidably from floods. Short duration severe storms incited by impervious surfaces cause immense floods, paralyzing city life as well as the tourism of the country. Engineering studies are hampered by intensive and improper urbanization, expensive expropriation costs and the difficulties in sharing responsibilities among governmental organizations. The flood of 22-23 September 2015 hit the city center of Bodrum, affected many structures and endangered human life. Some city roads were closed, some drainage lines were damaged and tourism was interrupted. The flood of Bodrum on September 22-23, 2015 was investigated on the scale of the affected basins. The causes and consequences of the flood were elucidated by field examinations. The drainage systems of upper, middle and lower basins were evaluated regarding their effects on the impact of the flood. Based on the rainfall records, runoff estimations were obtained using the SCS abstraction methodology. Flood hydrographs were derived by means of dimensionless hydrographs. Obtained results were used for the evaluation of the flood, and for suggesting solutions.