WW-R-2 + 3: GAK funds for and investments in flood protection | Umweltbundesamt

WW-R-2: GAK funds for flood protection

As part of the GAK, the Länder receive financial support from Federal government for the construction and reinforcment of flood protection defences, the relocation of dykes and the development of near-natural water bodies. Furthermore, the EU provides grants in connection with GAK and additional national funding. Since 2015 the SRP ‘Measures for preventative flood protection’ has been in existence. Since then, the expenditure incurred by the Länder has increased significantly.

WW-R-3: Investments in flood protection – case study

In Hesse, around 234 million euros have been invested in flood protection by the federal and state governments over the last ten years. This does not include the local authorities‘ own investments. As the obligation to maintain water bodies is only a federal state responsibility in the case of the old Rhine waters, non-technical flood protection measures regarding 1st order water bodies in Hesse are only carried out to a limited extent (impossible to represent in the chart).

Flood protection – expenditure is mounting

Flood events are a natural phenomenon. Human interventions such as separating alluvial meadows from rivers, straightening rivers, clearfelling of alluvial forests and property development in flood plains entail that the topography of the landscape is less able to retain floodwater thus accelerating discharge into water bodies. It is to be expected that progressive climate change will increase the flooding risks of watercourses. This increases the importance of flood risk management as embedded in the European Flood Directive (HWRM-RL) enacted in 2007, thus giving it legal status as well as urgency and significance. Every six years, these flood risk management plans, issued for all German river basins, have to be updated by those Länder which are responsible for floodwater precautions; this work has to be done taking into account the anticipated impacts of climate change. Such plans contain measures for technical flood protection, restoration of retention areas and the rehabilitation of near-natural structures of water bodies. Additional measures such as demarcation and designation of floodwater areas or preliminary planning work for the implementation of operational measures for flood protection have been embedded in the German Water Resources Act (WHG).

Given the enormous costs to the national economy resulting from flood events, the Federal government has been supporting the Länder in terms of flood protection already since 1973 within the framework of the joint task entitled ‘Improving the agricultural structure and coastal protection’ (GAK). The Federal government reimburses 60 % of expenditure on the construction of new and the reinforcement of extant flood protection defences, on relocating dykes and on measures taken to achieve the development of near-natural water bodies. In the follow-up to the devastating floods in June 2013 in the river basins of Elbe and Danube, it was furthermore decided to design the NHWSP. Primarily this programme is to speed up the implementation of supraregionally effective measures for a preventative flood protection such as measures involving the relocation of dykes and the reclamation of natural retention areas as well as measures for the controlled retention of floodwater (flood control reservoirs and polders). Since 2015 Federal government has been supporting the Länder additionally via the GAK special framework plan entitled ‘Preventative flood protection’ in the implementation of such preventative measures. For the first time this has included the Federal government promoting the purchase of retention areas.

In order to implement flood protection measures in respect of 1st order waters, the Länder use further funds from their own budgets, in addition to the resources available under GAK. Furthermore, the Länder grant funding to local authorities within the framework of their responsibility for 2nd and 3rd order waters; in other words, for implementing measures in respect of rivers of the 2nd and 3rd order. These investments were illustrated by using Hesse as an example. The funds invested by local authorities by themselves without the support of their relevant state are not illustrated. In Hesse investments in technical flood protection such as dams, walls, rain and flood retention basins, barrages, pumping stations and flood channels have declined in recent years, because the protracted dyke rehabilitation work in the areas of Rhine and Main have by now been essentially completed. On the other hand, non-technical measures have been gaining more importance. Natural or near-natural water body structures are able to retain water, stabilise the landscape water balance and can, in particular, mitigate flood events of medium proportions. Renaturation is therefore promoted wherever possible. Meandering rivers and streams reduce discharge rates and attenuate floodwater discharge peaks. Where the bed of a watercourse is permeable, consisting of types of sand and gravel, this enables the natural exchange between surface water and groundwater and is thus able to buffer, at least in part, floodwater peaks or water shortages. Cut-off meanders, alluvial meadows and flood plains in the vicinity of watercourses, are able to absorb part of the floodwater discharge. While many renaturation measures are often informed mainly by nature conservation objectives, they also help to reduce flood risks. One of the core challenges regarding non-technical flood protection continues to be the availability of additional retention areas which are safe to be flooded in a flood event. In addition to flood protection measures in water bodies and catchment areas, important adaptation measures include precautionary building decisions (cf. Indicator RO-R-5) as well as flood forecasting and warnings (cf. Indicator HUE-2).