Plenarveranstaltung: „Mit dem Wasser leben“

Coping Climate Change and water-related hazards in the urban environment
There is growing recognition in Europe that flood management strategies need to change. This particularly holds true for the urban environment. Living with Flood, Space for Water and ‚resilience‘ are becoming key issues in national and European policies. Climate change has become an additional incentive. For the future, a twin strategy should be adopted in which (i) precautionary investments need to be made in responding to the changes we think we can predict reasonably well and (ii) an adaptive and incremental approach in which we are less certain about future changes. To achieve this, governments at all levels must have access to relevant information and they must involve stakeholders more effectively and be as open as possible about the flood risks involved. The scientific community should develop proper analytical instruments and planning tools and more cooperation is needed between various disciplines such as (urban) planners, water managers and the private sector. As an example, the first experiences with implementation of this innovative approach to manage future flood risk in the city of Dordrecht (The Netherlands) are presented.