Press release FLAPP end conference

Maastricht, 14 June 2007

Experts present practical ideas to reduce flood risks

ZARAGOZA, Spain - More than 150 international experts and politicians met in SPain this week to share new practical ideas on how to prevent and manage floods in ways that protect the environment at the same time as defending Europe's communities and economy. The conference was the climax of more then two and a half years of research and cooperation among 35 organisations in 12 countries through the EU-funded FLAPP network. 

 
Picture: Alfred Evers handing over final product book to Hans Blokland, Vice-President of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament at the final FLAPP conference, 13 June 2007 in Zaragoza, Spain

Climate change, global warming, extreme weather und rising sea levels make floods a growing threat for thousands of citizens across Europe. Planners and politicians must work better together to handle flood dangers, which are all too familiar in the region where the conference took place: the Ebro river basin suffered extreme rainfall and devastating floods in March 2007.

The FLAPP partners presented and discussed the producsts of their cooperation: a book detailling concrete examples of good practice at regional and local scale, a joint approach to improve cross-border flood management, and policy recommendations for different levels of government in Europe.

They encouraged flood planners to cooperate better across borders and form partnerships across river bassins. Their recommendations, based on an analysis of best practive across Europe, will help regions to apply novel ideas that worked well elsewhere. The guiding principle is to implement flood measures that treat a river bassin as an integrated whole, managing the river from source to mouth.

The FLAPP report recommends that natural flood pains should be developed in ways that give rivers space to flood, instead of relying on flood defences to contain them. Flood planning must respect the natural ecological functions of floods, river systems and wetlands. Flood managers need to cooperate intensively across borders, just as the floods spread through river bassins without regards for frontiers.

"An integrated river bassin approach is possible only if there is good communicztion and good understanding between all the parties concerned. Connecting people, connecting water managers, connecting institutions and connecting systems: it all sounds easy enough, but in reality it is a hell of a job", said Alfred Evers, representative of the lead partner Euregion Meuse-Rhine.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.flapp.org