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In its meeting on April 27, 2023, the construction and procurement committee of the Rhein-Sieg district decided to assign the district-wide heavy rain risk management to a planning office. The services include the creation of heavy rain hazard and risk maps as well as the creation of an action plan. The current award was preceded by a public-law agreement between the district and the nineteen towns and municipalities belonging to the district on the creation of a district-wide risk management system. According to the district, the entire planning should be completed by mid-2025.
As district administrator Sebastian Schuster emphasized on the occasion of the decision, the best conditions for effective heavy rain risk management had been created with the district-wide cooperation. All citizens of the district would benefit from the pooling of knowledge and strength.
The risk management provides for an analysis of the hydraulic hazard (hydraulics: theory of the flow behavior of the water) as well as a risk analysis and an action plan. In a first step, heavy rain hazard maps are created using the hydraulic hazard analysis, similar to the heavy rain hazard map of NRW. These should then show where water accumulates in different precipitation scenarios and where a road could become impassable. Compared to the nationwide map, the level of detail of the risk analysis and consequently its informative value for the district should be higher. However, this would not work without taking into account the experiences made by municipalities and cities on their doorstep. Close cooperation between the engineering office, the district administration and the municipalities belonging to the district is therefore necessary for all steps.
In a second step, the evaluation of the heavy rain hazard maps and the determination of critical objects can then be used to assess the local flood risks. The risk aspects should take into account possible material and immaterial damage, which includes, for example, financially quantifiable damage to buildings and infrastructure as well as health hazards, impairment of supply security, damage to cultural assets and environmental damage.
According to the district, the third and final step is to use the risk analysis to form a planning basis for an action plan with the aim of coordinating and communicating measures between the district and the towns and communities. Part of the last step is also an information concept that is intended to help citizens prepare for and deal with floods caused by heavy rain events.
However, the district is already emphasizing that the drafting of the action plan will by no means complete heavy rain risk management in 2025. According to Tim Hahlen, the district’s head of environmental affairs, flood protection is and will remain a joint and permanent task on which everyone involved must work together. Citizens are therefore also called upon to keep themselves constantly and constantly informed and to take appropriate measures on their own responsibility in order to protect their private property from flooding. He therefore recommends expert planning and execution for these.
As district administrator Sebastian Schuster emphasized on the occasion of the decision, the best conditions for effective heavy rain risk management had been created with the district-wide cooperation. All citizens of the district would benefit from the pooling of knowledge and strength.
The risk management provides for an analysis of the hydraulic hazard (hydraulics: theory of the flow behavior of the water) as well as a risk analysis and an action plan. In a first step, heavy rain hazard maps are created using the hydraulic hazard analysis, similar to the heavy rain hazard map of NRW. These should then show where water accumulates in different precipitation scenarios and where a road could become impassable. Compared to the nationwide map, the level of detail of the risk analysis and consequently its informative value for the district should be higher. However, this would not work without taking into account the experiences made by municipalities and cities on their doorstep. Close cooperation between the engineering office, the district administration and the municipalities belonging to the district is therefore necessary for all steps.
In a second step, the evaluation of the heavy rain hazard maps and the determination of critical objects can then be used to assess the local flood risks. The risk aspects should take into account possible material and immaterial damage, which includes, for example, financially quantifiable damage to buildings and infrastructure as well as health hazards, impairment of supply security, damage to cultural assets and environmental damage.
According to the district, the third and final step is to use the risk analysis to form a planning basis for an action plan with the aim of coordinating and communicating measures between the district and the towns and communities. Part of the last step is also an information concept that is intended to help citizens prepare for and deal with floods caused by heavy rain events.
However, the district is already emphasizing that the drafting of the action plan will by no means complete heavy rain risk management in 2025. According to Tim Hahlen, the district’s head of environmental affairs, flood protection is and will remain a joint and permanent task on which everyone involved must work together. Citizens are therefore also called upon to keep themselves constantly and constantly informed and to take appropriate measures on their own responsibility in order to protect their private property from flooding. He therefore recommends expert planning and execution for these.