The problem of flooding and analysis of the ways of its solution

Abstract

An analysis of literary sources and informational materials on flood situations that occurred in different historical periods on different continents and in different countries was carried out. It has been established that floods accompany mankind from the earliest times to the present day. Information about catastrophic floods has been preserved since the third millennium BC, in connection with which they should be considered as a historical category. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), floods account for more than 45% of natural disasters related to water (hydrological disasters), which account for about 70% of all natural disasters on the planet. Taking into account the fact that floods are among the most dangerous natural phenomena in terms of the number of victims and the amount of damage, the problem of floods should be considered global. The global nature of the flood problem is confirmed by its following features: the problem concerns all humanity, affects the interests and fate of all countries and peoples; leads to significant social, ecological and economic losses, which, if they increase, will threaten the existence of human civilization; contributes to the aggravation of other internationally recognized global problems, such as environmental, food, social (in terms of population protection), land degradation. Taking into account the fact that in recent years the incidence of catastrophic floods has increased, their social, ecological and economic consequences have increased, as well as the number of human victims from floods, the article focuses on the need to develop a highly effective scientific and methodological toolkit for solving the problem of floods and its wide use not only in Ukraine, but also in many countries of the world. It has been established that among the many areas of systemic research of the problem of floods, the main and most important area is the fundamental improvement of the conceptual foundations of flood protection. The author's version of the universal concept of solving the flood problem is proposed, which is based on a universal algorithm for achieving the target indicator of flood protection. The maximum value of the ratio of the flood protection effect to the costs of achieving this effect was chosen as the target indicator of flood protection. The protective anti-flood effect is represented by the total damage averted by anti-flood measures, which consists of averted social, ecological and economic damages.