Land-use planning is an effective instrument to reduce future heavy rain risk. The heavy rain risk can decrease significantly, if changes of use, adjustments of use, restrictions of use or heavy rain-adapted construction and development in flood prone areas are considered in both phases of planning: formulation and implementation of plans. The power of the…
A proper hazard and risk assessment (with informative maps as central outputs) is the essential basis for starting an integrated risk management process. The assessment is a challenging multistep task, which requires – aside from clear objectives – input data (e.g. about historic events and damages, terrain and landuse data), methodological skills and decisions as…
Check dams act as barriers to swift creeks and gullies or usually dry pathways of concentrated surface runoff. They can be constructed in form of a sill or a step. The measure reduces the longitudinal slopes, serves the accumulation of surface waters and controls the velocity of the concentrated surface runoff during intense rainfall events.…
All pluvial flood events with damages should be documented and analysed regarding causes and impacts. The measure includes the assessment of buildings and infrastructure concerning their usability (e.g. transport routes, water supply, waste water disposal). Collected data are the basis for compensation requests to insurance or public disaster funds (if available). Moreover, lessons learnt can…
Furrow diking (also called tied ridging or furrow damming) is the formation of small earthen dikes across furrows e.g. for potato farming. A similar technique is soil pitting – the formation of small depressions at closely spaced intervals. Such techniques hold rainwater in place until it infiltrates the soil.
Baulks are belts of uncultivated land separating fields from each other. If baulks are oriented in the direction of a contour, they can slowdown surface runoff and support infiltration. The highest efficiency is achieved when the measure is accompanied by an infiltration belt located above and a furrow located under the baulk. Implementation is recommended…
