The Rhine Floods 1995: Flood Management Evaluation
Flood Management Evaluation
| Techniques | Advantages | Disadvantages |
Groups for |
Groups against |
| Hard Engineering | ||||
| Dams and reservoirs | Multi-purpose and non-polluting | Speed up river flow downstream and increase the flood risk Expensive | Leisure users | Environmentalists |
| Flood relief channel | Greatly reduces the flood risk | Very expensive. May encourage a false sense of security |
Those living downstream where the flood risk is decreased | People who own land affected by the development |
| Making course straighter and shorter | Relatively cheap | Needs to be maintained | Industry benefits from reduced transport costs | Environmentalists: damages channel and bank ecosystems |
| Strengthening levées | Existing land uses can be maintained | Need maintenance. Not sustainable in the long term | Existing land users | Those living downstream where the flood risk is increased |
| Flood retention basins | Store water at times of flood risk | Requires international co-operation. Land use restricted to recreational, pasture or forestry | Those living downstream where the flood risk is decreased | Those people affected by the occasional flooding e.g. hunters |
| Flood proofing | Reduces damage | May create a false sense of security | People who can remain at their site | People with businesses located on the floodplain where damage cannot be reduced e.g. market gardening |
| Soft Engineering | ||||
| Afforestation | Trees delay runoff and reduce the amount of water reaching the river | Forests generate little income | Conservationists | Farmers who have to convert their land to woodland |
| Floodplain land use zoning | Low cost for undeveloped areas of floodplain. Some industrial land users require a floodplain location | Existing floodplain damages are not reduced. Industry may locate elsewhere | Conservationists
Leisure users |
Local council, since the zoned land generates few jobs or tax income |
| Room for the river | Based on the idea that a change in one part of the river system will cause knock-on effects downstream. Sustainable | This solution would require a great degree of co-operation among the authorities in the countries through which the Rhine and its tributaries flow. Very expensive. Slow to take effect | Conservationists: flood prevention and ecosystem conservation given equal consideration | Farmers who lose their land |