Flood prevention – Experiences and findings from the Ahr flood in July 2021

On July 14/15, 2021, a flood event caused huge damages in the Ahrweiler district in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is above all a tragedy that 134 lives were lost. The magnitude of the catastrophe struck a large part of the population all of a sudden. In particular, the number of deaths resulted in a long phase of mourning in the Ahr Valley as well as cross-regional with many traumatized fellow citizens.

The discussions in public space call fundamental planning approaches in many field into question. A holistic consideration of the infrastructure situated in such a valley is demanded. The damage caused by destruction of the infrastructure above ground and underground in the Ahr Valley is approaching a limit of 10 billion euros. Besides schools, public buildings, bridges and other engineering structures, large parts of the underground infrastructure in pipeline networks have been destroyed as well.

Some findings and theories:

Flood protection is an issue for ongoing construction projects.

The local experts’ knowledge about infrastructure is crucial in disasters.

The digital world is dependent upon power supply – Will as-built plans be accessible?

We need a robust design in the field of critical infrastructure.

We have to work out a construction rubble management.

We have need of new engineering structures and must increase the quality of small- and medium-sized concrete structures.

What contributions can the concrete industry make to climate change?

What would have been the proper project information management?

How can BIM help in catastrophes?

We can draw conclusions from real-life examples of the 100-year disaster for the further development of concrete structure.