Century threats: Saxony-Anhalt has to act now!

Century threats: Saxony-Anhalt has to act now!

In recent years, flood events in Germany have often been in the headlines. The risk in Saxony-Anhalt is particularly high, where, according to the German Environmental Aid (DUH), there is greatly increased damage potential due to the flood of the century. The flood risk risk for Saxony-Anhalt is 7.04, which means that almost 9,000 residential addresses in the state are potentially at risk. The majority of the country area is also affected, since 5.9 percent were shown as flood risk areas. This is the third highest value in Germany. Happy News for Bavaria, which takes up the sad top position with 65,517 affected addresses, while Berlin has the lowest risk, with a value of only 3.01, so [sueddeutsche.de] (https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/hochwasseranalsanalysis- Jahrhinchwasser-anhalt-mit-hohem--risko-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-250709-930-779591).

The Hazard management in Germany, however, can still be expanded. The DUH has sharp criticism of the inadequate pension of the federal states, especially with regard to flood protection. A stronger focus on natural -based flood protection measures is urgently required. These include, for example, the renaturation of rivers and the back laying of dikes, while purely technical solutions should only be used in exceptions. It is expected that the flood of the century is statistically every 100 years, but more frequent water levels are possible due to climate change.

Riskograd in Lower Saxony

But not just Saxony-Anhalt is affected. Lower Saxony is also one of the federal states with a high flood risk. State-of-the-art DAST counted the DUH a total of 23,886 living addresses in flood risk areas. About 2.96 percent of the country area are considered endangered here. Lower Saxony is thus part of the federal states with the highest risks, including together with North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg. Environment Minister Christian Meyer (Greens) calls for a promising flood protection law of the federal government, which includes both rules for water withdrawal from rivers and incentives for saving water. These demands were supported by the Water Master Plan, which Meyer's Ministry developed. Here, more data on flood protection measures are also required to make a better comparison between the countries, such as [ndr.de] (https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/niedersachsen/umwelthilfe-vor-hochwasser--niedersachsen, HochwasserRisiko-100.html).

The role of climate change

climate scientists agree that the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation has increased since the 1950s - especially through global warming. With a temperature increase of one degree, the air can absorb about seven percent more moisture. In Germany, according to information from Deutschlandfunk.de, the year 2023 even at the warmest level since the start of the recordings. This means that not only coastal floods through the increasing sea level, but also heavy rain events in internal regions. The flood protection is therefore crucial to avoid worse scenarios in the future.