Transboundary flood risk management in the Rhine river basin

• Published in: AIMS environmental science 2016-01, Vol.3 (4), p.871-888
• Main Author: Schmid-Breton, Adrian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: flood Risk Management Plan; floods Directive; GIS tool; Rhine; transboundary flood risk management
• ISSN: 2372-0352
• DOI: 10.3934/environsci.2016.4.871

The Rhine connects the Alps to the North Sea. It is 1232 km long and one of the most important rivers in Europe. It has a drainage area of approximately 200,000 km2 and covers parts if not all nine countries, which participate into the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR) for the sustainable development of the Rhine ecosystem. The topography of the Rhine catchment is various, from high, middle and low mountain chains to lowlands and low-lying valleys, and includes different climatic zones resulting in different patterns of flood discharges. Several important flood events occurred in the past and thus the ICPR has decided to include the topic of transboundary flood risk management into its daily work. Common actions resulted in the Action Plan on Floods in 1998 and the first Flood Risk Management Plan for the international river basin district Rhine (according to the European Union Floods Directive) in 2015. To help inform the public and assess the effectiveness of implemented measures, the ICPR created and published two means and instruments of communication and decision support: The Rhine Atlas on Floods and a specific GIS-tool which is also available for other river organizations or national institutions. This paper presents the organisation and the outcomes of the coordinated transboundary flood risk management within an international river basin using the Rhine and the particular work of the ICPR.