REVISED STRATEGIES FOR FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT: LESSONS FROM THE 2002 FLOOD IN EUROPE

Abstract

The extreme flood event in central Europe in August 2002 caused large damages and loss of human lives in Austria, in the Czech Republic and in southeast Germany. The monetary flood losses are estimated as a total of 15 to 16 billion €, and 3.1 billion € in Austria, respectively. The flood peak of the Elbe River in Dresden was classified at least as a 500-year event. In Austria, the River Danube peak flow corresponded to average return intervals of 70-100 years, dependent on the river reaches, while in some tributary basins the estimated return periods of the flood peaks was above 1,000 years. The objective of this paper is to summarize the experiences gained from the last catastrophic flood, to re-analyze the flood management strategy and to discuss a "new" flood risk management approach. This article is organized in four chapters. It starts with an overview of the flood event and its consequences in central Europe. It then analyses possible impacts on the flood formation, like the role of climate change and direct human interventions in the river basin. Next, strategies for flood protection and risk management are reviewed, and finally an integrated flood risk management framework is proposed.