In addition to their primary water-retention function, existing flood retention reservoirs often provide just a narrow set of ecosystem services due to most of their potential benefits are neglected and thus, the synergetic opportunities they could offer are wasted. However, flood reservoirs have a great potential to provide multiple benefits for the society and the environment. They can potentially mitigate water pollution with the help of natural wetlands and/or ecosystem technologies, increase biodiversity in the landscape (rich marsh biotopes), represent potential habitat for endangered species (i.e. rare nesting birds), provide green space for recreation and relaxation of inhabitants from nearby surroundings, and support education through learning paths or informational boards for local visitors, schools, and kindergartens.
In the last 10 years, legislation on natural disasters has mainly focused on the development and implementation of reactive measures such as reparation, re-building, or compensation. However, too little attention has been given to proactive measures such as flood prevention. This policy, exacerbated through poor flood risk management and urbanisation of periodically flooded areas, caused that flood retention reservoirs often lacked of appropriate maintenance and operational permits, do rarely offer multi-functional benefits, and generally lack creativity and foresight in terms of implementation.
The implementation of appropriate maintenance measures can contribute to improving both flood retention capacity and water pollution mitigation and therefore, mitigate side effects of urbanisation. This includes measures such as the re-arrangement of flood reservoir drainage facilities, the infill of depression areas along riverbanks, the construction of new dry reservoirs downstream with increased bridge openings, and the re-arrangement of stream channels for e.g. 100-year flood events.
Furthermore, local communities can be benefited through the incorporation of more open green spaces, better local microclimatic conditions, social and educational activities, carefully planned and innovatively designed recreational and educational paths.
The development of a cross-sectorial approach it is crucial to engage key stakeholders such as municipalities, water authorities, landowners, local people, tourist agencies, schools, or faculties, to provide the diverse but necessary knowledge for a collaborative decision-making process.
FACILITATORY (PUBLIC) BODIES:
green spaces department; land use planning department; planning and development department; community development department; water and sewerage management department; environmental and sustainability department
LOCAL TASK FORCE:
local or regional authority; researcher; community group; educational organisation; landowner; business
urban region; (sub-)urban communities
MAIN NECESSARY RESOURCES ARE:
community trust; space; public institutional set-up; local knowledge; expert knowledge
Please get in touch with our expert contact for additional material’