Reducing the flood risk through floodplain restoration along the Danube River and tributaries

Research institute: BOKU Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and River Research

The first Danube Flood Risk Management Plan, as well as the legal bases of the European Water Framework Directive, the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive and the Birds Directive lead to the introduction of a Danube-wide integrative flood risk management, with a special view on the flood disasters of the recent decades.

The goal of Danube Floodplain is to develop a cross-river basin strategy and roadmap that will promote the protection and / or the optimal use of existing as well as the reconnection of isolated or lost retention areas / floodplains.

For this purpose extensive investigations at the retention areas of the Danube are carried out with hydraulic models using the FEM (Flood Evaluation Matrix) in order to obtain the inventory of the present situation. The existing and formerly existing retention areas will be ranked using the FEM. At selected pilot reaches, the FEM will be further developed and applied in terms of biodiversity and cost-benefit analyses, in order to provide the stakeholders involved with a basis for their further action.