Strategy of protection against hazardous channel and hydrological processes in rivers of developed territories and territories with focal development

In 2012-2015, the Makkaveev Research Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Fluvial Processes of MSU, Department of Geography, carried out a research, including analysis of hydrological and channel regimes of the Tom river in the Kuznetsk basin (Kuzbass) and the Katun river up to Uimonsky (the Altai), intra-mountain drainage basins, the survey of floodplains and eroded banks, and modelling of floods occurring in floodplains. As a result, a concept has been developed to improve protection measures against hazardous hydrological and channel processes. More than 200 engineering and organisational events were suggested as part of the concept. Given the dense network of river banks and the high potential damage caused by floods in Kuzbass, the continuous protection of cities, large residential and commercial areas, as well as sections of roads and railways subject to erosion is a priority in the flood control concept. In the case of the Katun river basin, characterized by local development, low population density, and relatively small damage caused by floods, the emphasis is put on organisational measures: prevention, evacuation of people and property, insurance and compensation. Selective engineering structures should, as a matter of priority, reduce the dangerous erosion of river banks and ensure a high level of protection of the territory against floods

Two-dimensional hydrodynamic flood modelling for populated valley areas of Russian rivers

Results of flood modelling for three cities located in different parts of Russia: (1) Veliky Ustyug at the Northern Dvina river (Europe); (2) Mezhdurechensk at the Tom river (Siberia); and (3) Blagoveschensk at the Amur river (Far East) are presented. The two-dimensional hydrodynamic model of flow in channels and on floodplain STREAM_2D on the basis of the numerical solution of two-dimensional Saint–Venant equations on a hybrid curvilinear quadrangular and rectangular mesh was used for the simulations. Verification of the model through a comparison of simulated inundated areas with outlines of flooded zones from satellite images for known hydrologic situations demonstrate close correspondence (relative errors of 7–12% in terms of the area for peaks of the analysed floods). Analyses of embankment influence of large-scale levees on the water flow demonstrate that, in some cases, water levels could rise by more than 1 m and the patterns of the flooding zones could significantly differ

An assessment of danger during spring floods and ice jams in the north of European Russia

Heavy ice jams during spring floods are common on rivers in the northern European Russia. Climate changes of the last decades have caused significant changes in the ice regime of rivers. Continuous freezing periods, followed by sludge ice jams and late freezing at high water levels, occur with increasing frequency. Winter break-ups have become more frequent. The most recent catastrophic flood in the area under study took place in the spring of 2013. The probability of floods and ice jamming is evaluated; the duration and depth of inundation at various water levels are calculated with an assessment of the accompanying economic losses in the Northern Russia

Causes and systematics of inundations of the Krasnodar territory on the Russian Black Sea coast

The inundation situations on the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar territory for the period from 1945 until 2013 were analysed and the main types of inundations at the coast are described. Synoptic factors of the formation of extreme precipitation and rainfall floods, features and regularities of the downstream flood wave transformation in the rivers are also studied. Therefore, assessments of seasonal and maximum flow of the Black Sea coast rivers for the period of hydrometric measurements were done. Regularities of change of the occurrence of inundations and their characteristics on the coastal terrain were analysed, for a year and on a perennial timescale. <br><br> Most catastrophic and exceptional inundations arise in the summer and in early autumn. Small inundations during the remaining year reflect the seasonal distribution of river flow and floods in the Black Sea rivers. Extensive and sometimes extreme precipitation dominates the river flow regimes. The seasonal distribution of small and moderately dangerous inundations reflects, on average, a water regime of two groups of rivers of the coast &ndash; to the north and to the south of the Tuapse River. To the north of the Tuapse River, floods prevail from November until March (up to 70 % of observed floods took place in this period) as a result of precipitation and winter snowmelt during frequent thaw periods. In winter, high waters often overlap to form a multi-peak high water of 2&ndash;3 weeks' duration. In the summer and in early autumn we observe a steady low flow. The total amount of runoff increases both in a southeast direction, and with the altitude of the river basins. Interannual variability of mean annual runoff, as well as maximum runoff, on the contrary decreases in the southern direction and with an increasing area of the river basins. The coastal high waters of the rivers of the Sochi part of the coast are typical at any time of the year, but more often floods in the cold season result from incessant rain, and thawing snow. Annually up to 25 floods have been observed. The principal reason of such distribution is the increase of extreme rainfall in the warm season. <br><br> Orographic features of the coast and detailed features of rainfall only cover a small number of local river basins and a limited area. The geographical correlation of individual rainfall and subsequent floods ceases to be statistically significant for distances over 40&ndash;60 km. <br><br> The annual flow cycle is mainly determined by two seasons, winter/spring and summer, with strong and weak flows, respectively; almost 71 % of all catastrophic and exceptional inundations took place in July&ndash;August (71 %) and in October&ndash;November (29 %). The characteristic features of dangerous floods are their rapid formation and propagation, a significant increase of water level (up to 5&ndash;7 m and more) and the multiple increase of water discharges in comparison with low flow period. <br><br> Analysis of the interannual changes of the number of inundations at the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar territory has shown some increase of the number of inundations in the period from the early 1970s until the early years of the twenty-first century. <br><br> Quantitative assessments of risk, hazard and damage for the population and economic activities from accidental inundations in the valleys of the Black Sea coast rivers show that economic and social losses from inundations at the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar territory are some of the highest in the Russian Federation. The basic conclusion from recent inundations is the need to consider not only the lower reaches and mouths of the Black Sea coast rivers where the main part of the social and economic development of the coast is concentrated, but also whole river basins and catchments. Further, an analysis of the efficiency of the measures applied at the coast to mitigate inundations and their after-effects is provided

Development of Methods for Generation of Digital Watermarks Resistant to Distortion

Active attacks and natural impacts can lead to two types of image-container distortions: noise-like and geometric. There are also image processing operations, e.g. scaling, rotation, truncation, pixel permutation which are much more detrimental to digital watermarks (DWM). While ensuring resistance to removal and geometric attacks is a more or less resolved problem, the provision of resistance to local image changes and partial image deletion is still poorly understood. The methods discussed in this paper are aimed at ensuring resistance to attacks resulting in partial image loss or local changes in the image. This study's objective is to develop methods for generating a distortion-resistant digital watermark using the chaos theory. This will improve the resistance of methods of embedding the digital watermark to a particular class of attacks which in turn will allow developers of DWM embedding methods to focus on ensuring the method resistance to other types of attacks. An experimental study of proposed methods was conducted. Histograms of DWMs have shown that the proposed methods provide for the generation of DWM of a random obscure form. However, the method based on a combination of Arnold's cat maps and Henon maps has noticeable peaks unlike the method based on shuffling the pixels and their bits only with Arnold's cat maps. This suggests that the method based only on Arnold's cat maps is more chaotic. This is also evidenced by the value of the coefficient of correlation between adjacent pixels close to zero (0.0109) for color DWMs and 0.030 for black and white images