Water book

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The water book records legal relationships in Germany and Austria with reference to water bodies. It thus has a similar function for water rights as the land register has for real estate .

Germany

In Prussia, the basis for water books was introduced in 1913 with the Prussian Water Act.

The basis for the water book is Section 87 of the Water Management Act (WHG). Permits issued in accordance with the WHG (if they are not only used for temporary purposes), permits, old rights and old authorizations, planning approval decisions and planning permits, as well as water protection areas, risk areas and established floodplains must be entered.

In Germany, the water books are usually kept by the lower water authorities - these are usually the environmental offices of the districts and urban districts. In some federal states, digital editions of the water book are maintained by the upper water authorities.

The entries in the water book have no legal or legal effect: If a non-existent legal relationship is entered inadvertently, this does not result in any right to use water; if a legal relationship is erroneously deleted, this has no influence on its continued existence. The entry thus only represents a so-called notarizing administrative act (BVerwGE 37, 103 ff). Notarizing administrative acts do not contain any dispositions about a legal situation, do not justify or change them, so they have no constitutive character. The entry in the water book does not justify a legal, but at least an actual assumption; in this sense they are suitable as evidence. This applies to authorities as well as to right holders and other data subjects. Anyone who invokes inaccuracy must provide counter-evidence. The entry is something like "first appearance evidence".

North Rhine-Westphalia

The water book is kept in NRW by the district governments.

Austria

Official water books have existed in Austria since the middle of the 19th century, such as the Styrian water book since 1872.

The Austrian Water Book (ÖWB) is a public directory of the countries . It is regulated in Sections 124 to 126 of the 1959 Water Law Act, Federal Law Gazette No. 215/1959, in the version of Federal Law Gazette I No. 73/2018 (WRG). All essential water (usage) rights are entered in the water book. The water book does not have a constitutive effect, i.e. in the event of a contradiction between the approval notification and entry in the water book, only the notification reflects the actual legal situation. Nevertheless, the water book has an important declarative effect.

It consists of:

The name and address of the person entitled is to be shown as well as the property or plant to which the right is connected and the duration for which this right was granted.

In Austria the governor keeps a water book for every administrative district. In some cases, the water book is already being managed by means of automated data processing. In the federal state of Lower Austria, for example, all water rights are available nationwide in the water data network (WDV) .

Water information system for eight federal states: Since 2001 the states of Salzburg, Carinthia, Vorarlberg, Burgenland and Styria have been developing and operating a joint water information system (WIS) . The federal states of Tyrol (2009), Vienna (2010), Lower Austria (2016) and Upper Austria (2019) have also joined this cooperation. The harmonization of the data models and the coordinated further development of the various software components result in significant synergies. In addition to the financial aspects, this initiative creates simple and open access to the water management databases of the aforementioned federal states.

The inspection of the water book is permitted to everyone, in accordance with data protection regulations.

Individual evidence

  1. Before March 1, 2010: § 37 WHG.
  2. https://www.brd.nrw.de/umweltschutz/gewaesserschutz/Wasserbuch_Allgemeine_Informationen.html
  3. History of the Styrian Water Book. (No longer available online.) Umweltinformation Steiermark (LUIS), 2008, formerly in the original ; Retrieved May 11, 2008 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.umwelt.steiermark.at  

Web links

Germany:

Austria: