Introduction

Flood events are becoming more frequent and intense in many countries around the world. One of the major concerns in the world is the recent increase of catastrophic flood situations. Many researches point out that in the coming decades the situation may become worse due to the climate change ( Palmer and Risnen, 2002 ). Flood management knows various approaches for controlling floods (to some extent) and for mitigating their consequences. There are structural approaches that are expensive and not always possible. Solutions like reforestation, proper urban planning and extension of flood plains, are often efiective but are long term and do not always guarantee considerable reduction of flood damage. Due to the fact that in many situations it is practically impossible to prevent floods, it is important to build models and systems that are able to forecast hazardous situations with the highest possible accuracy. It is common that flood management includes flood warning system or flow forecasting system providing assessments of the spatial range and duration of flooding.