Adaptive flood management: Institutional challenges and opportunities in the German Rhine basin

Almost two centuries of human interventions at the Upper Rhine to adapt the river systems to led to a serious increase of the flood risk and potential damage downstream. In 1982, the two riparian countries, Germany and France, agreed to re-establish the former protection level against a once-in-200-years flood, with Germany taking most of the workload. This can be considered as the starting point for the transition in flood management from a traditional, engineered safety discourse to a holistic, precautionary flood management policy in Germany with an ecological risk perspective. Considering as well the ecological aspects and socio-economic consequences, alternative flood management concepts were developed, for example combining hazard reduction with flood plain restoration (‘more room for water’) or introducing the ideas of precaution, damage minimization and individual selfresponsibility. The new concepts achieved the political acceptance and social goodwill, and could be consolidated and in the end legally institutionalized at the national level. Apart from the institutional elements overarching drivers and triggers such as new discourses, major flood events and in particular leading change actors or ‘policy entrepreneurs’ were necessary to initiate, support and implement the policy changes. A number of factors and possibilities are suggested to achieve completion of the transition such as a longer term horizon of flood management, a more effective interplay and cooperation among a range of actors and levels of governance and, most importantly, the political will to take action and follow a common vision. * This chapter is based on: Becker, G. 2009. Germany: Transitions in flood management in the Rhine basin. pp. 325 – 348. In: Huitema, D., and S. Meijerink (eds.). 2009.Water policy entrepreneurs. A research companion to water transitions around the globe. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.