Flood Action Plans
17 flood action plans for all sub-basins in the Danube catchment area were prepared in 2009. They provide the first comprehensive overview of actions aiming to reduce flood risks that was ever prepared in Danube River Basin.
In response to the danger of flooding the ICPDR adopted the Action Programme on Sustainable Flood Protection in the Danube River Basin in 2004. The goal of the Action Programme is to achieve a long term and sustainable approach for managing the risks of floods to protect human life and property, while encouraging conservation and improvement of water related ecosystems. Given the area, the complexity and the internal differences in the Danube River Basin, the Action Programme represents an overall framework, which needs to be specified in further detail for sub-basins.
Therefore, the targets of the ICPDR Action Programme include preparation of flood action plans for all sub-basin in the Danube catchment area. This key target has been achieved by the end of 2009 when 17 flood action plans for the sub-basins of the Danube, which were based on 45 national planning documents, were adopted by the ICPDR. Publishing of flood action plans for sub-basins is also considered as an interim and important step in implementation of the EU Directive on Floods in the Danube River Basin.
The action plans for sub-basins review the current situation in flood protection in the respective river catchments and set the targets and the respective measures aiming among others to reduction of damage risks and flood levels, increasing the awareness of flooding and to improvement of flood forecasting. The measures are based on the regulation of land use and spatial planning, increase of retention and detention capacities, technical flood defences, preventive actions, capacity building, awareness & preparedness raising and prevention and mitigation of water pollution due to floods.
