History of floods in Greece: causes and measures for protection

Floods as diachronic and international phenomena affect numerous people, buildings and infrastructure. Throughout human history, floods are the most lethal and have caused more economic losses than other natural disasters. In this review, the history of floods is considered focusing in ancient Greec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Natural hazards (Dordrecht) 2020-04, Vol.101 (3), p.833-852
Main Authors: Angelakis, A. N., Antoniou, G., Voudouris, K., Kazakis, N., Dalezios, N., Dercas, N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civil Engineering
Dams
Deforestation
Disasters
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Economic impact
Economics
Environmental Management
Environmental risk
Flood control
Flood damage
Flood management
Flood protection
Flood risk
Flooding
Floods
Geophysics/Geodesy
Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences
Greek civilization
Historical metallurgy
History of engineering
Hydrogeology
Hygiene
Lakes
Natural disasters
Natural Hazards
Original Paper
Protection
Rain
Rain water
Rainwater recovery systems
Reforestation
Rivers
Stormwater
Stormwater management
Urbanization
Water engineering
Water flow
Water harvesting
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Summary:Floods as diachronic and international phenomena affect numerous people, buildings and infrastructure. Throughout human history, floods are the most lethal and have caused more economic losses than other natural disasters. In this review, the history of floods is considered focusing in ancient Greece since the early Bronze Age. Ancient Greeks avoided living near lakes and rivers probably for hygiene reasons and protection from floods. Representative impressive hydraulic anti-flooding works including dams, walls, channels from different cities and other settlements in the Minoan era, and the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman period are presented. It is concluded that the risk with respect to flood events is more severe today than in ancient times. The ongoing urbanization and deforestation through the centuries have led to an increasing and unmanageable flood risk. For this reason, a set of special measures should be applied in vulnerable areas aiming to mitigate severe damages that floods might cause, including anti-flooding dams, water flow diverting technologies, rainwater harvesting and rain gardens for stormwater retention, reforestation and other smart environmental strategies. The examples of anti-flood hydro-technologies described in this paper may have some relevance for water engineering even in modern times.
ISSN:0921-030X
1573-0840
DOI:10.1007/s11069-020-03898-w