On November 26th, Bauska Castle, a historic site in southern Latvia, hosted a meeting of experts from Latvia and Lithuania as part of the ICEREG project (LL-00136).
The meeting place had not been chosen accidentally. Bauska Castle is located between the rivers Mūsa and Mēmele that play a very important role in ice jam formation in the Project pilot river stretch “Lielupe River from Mūsa–Mēmele rivers junction to Sesava River”. Bauska municipality is one of the ICEREG project stakeholders.
Photo by Emīls Rubīns
The meeting brought together 21 participants who presented their latest results and discussed the way forward with the aim to develop a conceptual model of ice-jam induced flood formation in the Project pilot river stretches.
One of the main topics explored was the various factors influencing the formation of ice jams and the subsequent floods. It is important to understand the interplay between hydrological and meteorological conditions that lead to these hazardous events.
The meeting also featured climate change modeling results for Latvia and Lithuania. Project experts presented projections regarding future shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns that are expected to impact the frequency and intensity of ice-jam floods.
Another significant discussion centered around data preparation and the multi-factor analysis of hydro-meteorological parameters for Latvian rivers, as well as hydrological modeling results in Lithuania for assessing the impact of climate change.
Photo by Tatjana Koļcova
The conceptual model of ice-jam flood formation will provide valuable insights regarding the specific factors impacting development of ice jams and their induced floods in particular pilot river stretches.