4th European Conference on Flood Risk Management

The special session ‘Love and hate’ relationship between Flood Risk Management and Natura2000!? will take place virtually on Wednesday 23 June 2021 from 16:00 to 17:30.

The session will be led by Harm Rinkel, Stephanie Janssen & Ellen Tromp

Across Europe countries are taking measures to reduce flood risk through dike reinforcement projects as part of the EU Water Framework Directive. On many locations, both in river and coastal areas, dike reinforcement efforts border or overlap Natura2000 areas. In the current situation dike managers experience difficulties and hurdles around the Natura2000 legislation. Different approaches and strategies are being developed to overcome these perceived challenges. Such approaches include strategies of complete avoidance of Natura2000 areas through a sole focus on dike structure as well as complete nature-inclusive flood risk reduction strategies.

In the special session on the ‘love and hate’ relationship between flood risk management and Natura2000 will be explored. We will discuss the scale and occurrence of the relationship and identify the challenges and opportunities it may offer. Different approaches to deal with Natura2000 in flood risk reduction are being showcased in case studies from different countries. Successful approaches will help safeguarding both threatened species and habitats as well as the inhabitants from flooding!

The Programme includes:

16:00     Opening and introduction
Setting the scene by David van Raalte director at Waterschap Drents Overijsselse Delta
Interaction with participants

16:20     Case study presentations & Discussions

Netherlands – a combined approach by Esther Dieker (Arcadis)
Dikes are located close to nature areas and both need improvement. Until recently nature restoration and dike improvements were considered in isolation from each other, despite the obvious connections. Dike improvements and nature restorations can benefit from a combined approach. In the presentation experiences are shown from two Dutch projects where this was done: the Lauwersmeer dike improvement project and the Water Framework Directive project for improvement of river forelands in the East of the Netherlands.

Germany – Saxony-Anhalt by Sven Schulz (Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Energy) and Thilo Weichel (State Agency for Flood Defence and Water Management of Saxony-Anhalt)
Saxony-Anhalt with more than 300km Elbe river is characterised of a high degree of lost of potential flood areas in the past. The extreme flood events in 2002 and 2013 with new records water levels clarified that rivers need their space. Based on this fact the programme “More space for rivers” was published in Saxony-Anhalt. Here a lot of projects are planning or already realized.

17:00    Group work – sharing experiences and best practices in combining Flood Risk Management and Natura2000

17:20    Session closure and next steps

Please use the 'add to Schedule' button on the Special Session Programme, to register your interest in participating in this special session.

For more information visit the Special Session Hub and the webpage https://hub.floodrisk2020.net/theme/specials/natura2000/.

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