Sustainable levee construction along the Danube River

Nowadays changing weather conditions and the resulting increasing flood levels make flood protection improvement essential. In Hungary, in the Szigetköz floodplain area, a complex water resources management unit of the Upper part of the Danube River, the rehabilitation of the water levels, and the setting back of the settled low and middle water levels had become necessary. It has been achieved by relocating the estuary of the Mosoni-Danube River and constructing a complex water control structure. A new ~1.5 km long levee connects to the structure. Due to a large volume of fine-grained blanket material on the site, the possibility arose to build a section of the levee using the blanket material without applying a cut-off wall to prevent water flow through the levee. The geotechnical parameters of the available local material were based on a complex site investigation program. According to the results of the field and laboratory tests, the blanket layer was suitable as fill material and could be compacted to the required 90% degree of compaction using standard machinery and procedures. Plaxis 2D software using fully coupled flow-deformation analysis, imitating the previously registered flood waves, modeled seepage and stability behaviour to evaluate the ultimate limit states of the levee constructed from the blanket material. The analysis proved the adequacy of the blanket material, avoiding the necessity for a barrier within the embankment. The use of local blanket material as fill eliminated the need to excavate and transport additional material, reducing environmental impact, shortening construction time, and saving costs on the project.