THE 2019 FLOODS IN IRKUTSK REGION

The article presents the results of a study of the causes of floods in the summer of 2019 in the Irkutsk region, which affected more than 100 settlements, and the damage exceeded 35 billion rubles. Tulun City and Nizhneudinsk City located on the Ija River and the Tulun River, suffered the most from floods. The authors have found that the formation of extreme floods was due to the action of natural causes, that is a rare combination of synoptic factors with high previous moisture catchments. Anthropogenic factors had little impact. Modeling allowed to find out the reasons of formation of an unusual flood in the basin of the Iya River and to restore chronology of flooding of Tulun. Spectral analysis of satellite images on the NDVI index allowed automatic identification of objects subjected to flooding. The high flood damage was caused not only by the height of the floods, but also by systemic problems specific to the Russian Federation. The article provides recommendations on reduction of the flood risks.