Flood management

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With flood management , the concept of flood protection is significantly expanded. Flood management (on rivers ) takes modern knowledge into account:

  • Floods are natural, self-evident events that cannot be avoided.
  • The catastrophic consequences of floods arise only when areas that are used for natural flooding are settled.
  • Technical protective measures for these populated areas only provide apparent security, because they only protect up to a planned limit (the design flood), which can always be exceeded.
  • If this design flood is exceeded, the damage behind the flooded dykes is often extremely high.
  • Technical protective measures are only effective locally, they often exacerbate the flood situation further downstream.

Overview of flood management

Important strategies of flood management are:

Flood management

As part of a flood area management, areas at risk of flooding are secured as part of area prevention . An adapted use of the areas is sought. This usually requires comprehensive information on the flood risk, which can now be made available via flood risk maps.

With the preservation or (as far as possible) with the restoration of retention areas , the water retention in the area is improved. In areas that are populated today, this restoration is usually no longer possible, but the removal of sealed areas can improve the infiltration capacity of the soil.

Technical-infrastructural flood protection

Existing infrastructures can be protected from flooding at a planned water level by expanding the profile and building dykes , dams and flood retention basins.

Flood prevention

By adapting the construction method and the structural systems, the amount of damage in the event of a flood can be significantly reduced as part of building precaution . Through behavioral precaution , d. H. Damage can also be reduced through flood forecasts , flood warnings and planned action during the flood (alarm and action plans). For every citizen also the possibility of financial loss provisions (remains hazards insurance ) the personal effects of the damage to keep within acceptable limits.