Here Comes the Flood, but Not Failure? Lessons to Learn after the Heavy Rain and Pluvial Floods in Germany 2021

Fekete, Alexander; Sandholz, Simone

doi:10.3390/w13213016

Cited by 131 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Although the official data collection on economic flood impacts in Germany's federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate is ongoing; current estimates point to EUR 33 billion in damage to private households, infrastructure, forestry, and agriculture as well as viticulture enterprises (Fekete and Sandholz, 2021). In Germany, the Ahr valley was hit hardest: 62 out of 75 bridges were destroyed, and almost all wineries were heavily affected (BMI, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More than heavy rain turning into fast-flowing water – a landscape perspective on the 2021 Eifel floods

Dietze

Bell

Öztürk

et al. 2022

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Rapidly evolving floods are rare but powerful drivers of landscape reorganisation that have severe and long-lasting impacts on both the functions of a landscape’s subsystems and the affected society. The July 2021 flood that particularly hit several river catchments of the Eifel region in western Germany and Belgium was a drastic example. While media and scientists highlighted the meteorological and hydrological aspects of this flood, it was not just the rising water levels in the main valleys that posed a hazard, caused damage, and drove environmental reorganisation. Instead, the concurrent coupling of landscape elements and the wood, sediment, and debris carried by the fast-flowing water made this flood so devastating and difficult to predict. Because more intense floods are able to interact with more landscape components, they at times reveal rare non-linear feedbacks, which may be hidden during smaller events due to their high thresholds of initiation. Here, we briefly review the boundary conditions of the 14–15 July 2021 flood and discuss the emerging features that made this event different from previous floods. We identify hillslope processes, aspects of debris mobilisation, the legacy of sustained human land use, and emerging process connections and feedbacks as critical non-hydrological dimensions of the flood. With this landscape scale perspective, we develop requirements for improved future event anticipation, mitigation, and fundamental system understanding.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More than heavy rain turning into fast-flowing water – a landscape perspective on the 2021 Eifel floods

Dietze

Bell

Öztürk

et al. 2022

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Congestion then causes the river to seek new flow paths outside the riverbed, which can result in destruction within areas that are far from the riverbed under normal flow conditions. If the enlargement becomes dislodged, the flood wave can cause great destruction downstream with effects similar to those of a dam failure [49]. To reduce backwater effects during future flood events, the deposition of flotsam and debris should be considered when sizing culverts.…”

Section: Damages On the Railroad Line And Interactions Between Transp...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Heavy and Persistent Precipitation on Railroad Infrastructure in July 2021: A Case Study from the Ahr Valley, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

et al. 2022

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In contrast to river floods, the enormous erosion potential in catchments contributes significantly to the extent of damage to infrastructure in valleys. This paper investigates the impact of the heavy precipitation event of 14–15 July 2021 on the railroad in the Ahr valley in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. In a first step, a detailed overview of the climatological and hydrological drivers using spatially high-resolved precipitation distribution and peak discharge modeling is provided, and the event is placed in a broader context by comparing it to past flash flood events from 1910 and 2016. In a second step, a detailed mapping of damages along the railroad line is performed using aerial photographs. The mapping revealed that bridges are the weakest point during a flood event and that they contribute to an increase and modification of the flood wave through backwater effects. Since flood events are expected to increase in the future, there is an urgent need to increase the resilience of transportation to this hazard and to answer the question of what magnitudes and return periods of events should be used in future sizing of rail infrastructure.

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“…Although the official data collection on economic flood impacts in Germany's federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate is ongoing, current estimates point at 33 billion Euro damage to private households, infrastructure, forestry, and agriculture as well as viticulture enterprises (Fekete and Sandholz, 2021). The Ahr valley was hit hardest: 62 out of 75 bridges were destroyed and almost all wineries were heavily affected (BMI, 2021).…”

Section: Fig 1a)mentioning

confidence: 99%

More than heavy rain turning into fast-flowing water – a landscape perspective on the 2021 Eifel floods

Dietze

Bell

Öztürk

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Rapidly evolving floods are rare but powerful drivers of landscape reorganisation that have severe and long lasting impacts on both the functions of a landscape’s subsystems and the affected society. The July 2021 flood that particularly hit several river catchments of the Eifel region in West Germany and Belgium was a drastic example. While media and scientists highlighted the meteorological and hydrological aspects of this flood, it was not just the rising water levels in the main valleys that posed a hazard, caused damage, and drove environmental reorganisation. Instead, the concurrent coupling of landscape elements and the wood, sediment and debris carried by the fast-flowing water made this flood so devastating and difficult to predict. Because more intense floods are able to interact with more landscape components, they at times reveal rare non-linear feedbacks, which may be hidden during smaller events due to their high thresholds of initiation. Here, we briefly review the boundary conditions of the 14–15 July 2021 flood and discuss the emerging features that made this event different from previous floods. We identify hillslope processes, aspects of debris mobilisation, the legacy of sustained human land use, and emerging process connections and feedbacks as critical non-hydrological dimensions of the flood. With this landscape scale perspective, we develop requirements for improved future event anticipation, mitigation and fundamental system understanding.

show abstract

Here Comes the Flood, but Not Failure? Lessons to Learn after the Heavy Rain and Pluvial Floods in Germany 2021

Cited by 131 publications

References 23 publications

More than heavy rain turning into fast-flowing water – a landscape perspective on the 2021 Eifel floods

More than heavy rain turning into fast-flowing water – a landscape perspective on the 2021 Eifel floods

Impacts of Heavy and Persistent Precipitation on Railroad Infrastructure in July 2021: A Case Study from the Ahr Valley, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

More than heavy rain turning into fast-flowing water – a landscape perspective on the 2021 Eifel floods

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