Rainfall will increase flooding in the century ahead

Utvik floodingBruland in Utvik after the flood on Monday.Photo: Hans Ivar Moss Kolseth / NTB scanpix

Heavier rainfall will cause flooding in the century ahead

According to the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), there’ll be a 20 to 40% increase in flood water flowing from several waterways over the course of the next 100 years.

 

‘The NVE has calculated what to expect on waterways as a result of climate change. The main point is that in several watercourses, one can expect a 20 to 40% increase in flood water for the next 100 years’, Grethe Helgås told Aftenposten newspaper.

She is sectional head of the avalanche and river basin department of NVE.

During the heavy rainfall on Sunday night, parts of the idyllic village of Utvik, at Innvikfjorden in Stryn municipality, was flooded. Houses, roads and bridges were inundated when two rivers that flow through the city broke their banks.

The floods in Western Norway, and in Sogn and Fjordane, came as a result of heavy local rainfall. It’s especially in smaller and steeper waterways that heavy local rainfall presents a challenge.

‘We see that these events can be quite dramatic, as things happen much faster than they do on the big watercourses’, said Helgås.

In addition to Utvik, Sandane and Breim, in Gloppen municipality, were particularly affected by the flood. All three places are located in Sogn and Fjordane.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today