Journal of the Bulgarian Geographical Society 47: 53-59, doi: 10.3897/jbgs.e97974
Characteristics of July 2019 Cherna Mesta River flash flood
Ianko Gerdjikov‡, Zornitsa Dotseva‡, Eli Pavlova-Traykova§, Dian Vangelov‡‡ Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria§ Forest Research Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Corresponding author: Ianko Gerdjikov ( janko@gea.uni-sofia.bg ) Academic editor: Stelian Dimitrov © Ianko Gerdjikov, Zornitsa Dotseva, Eli Pavlova-Traykova, Dian Vangelov. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Gerdjikov I, Dotseva Z, Pavlova-Traykova E, Vangelov D (2022) Characteristics of July 2019 Cherna Mesta River flash flood. Journal of the Bulgarian Geographical Society 47: 53-59. https://doi.org/10.3897/jbgs.e97974 |  |
Abstract
One of the biggest rivers in the southern part of the Balkan peninsula – the Mesta River is wellknown for frequent flash floods, especially in the upper river course. As a result of severe storms and related heavy rain in mid-July 2019, the Cherna Mesta River flooded, and this resulted in heavy damage to the road infrastructure and water-supply systems. All data indicate that this was not a usual water flood, instead at peak flow, the river carried a huge amount of gravel. Our mapping of erosional and depositional features related to the 2019 event, as well as geomorphological analysis, allows for distinguishing distinct sectors along the river valley. Most hazards are defined in the lower reaches of the Cherna Mesta River, where the processes of channel aggradation and lateral erosion are pronounced. The field analysis of the flood-related deposits indicates the operation of debris flood and hyperconcentrated and water flood processes.
Keywords
catchments, Cherna Mesta River, flash flood, geomorphological sectors