More than 200 people across Europe lost their lives in the 2021 floods. With at least 170 fatalities, the floods are the worst natural disaster in Germany since the storm surge in 1962. Read here to find out how the 2021 floods came about, what role climate change played and what this means for urban planning.

Over 230 people lost their lives in the 2021 floods across Europe. In terms of fatalities, the floods are the worst natural disaster in Germany since the storm surge in 1962. Read on to find out how the 2021 floods came about, the role of climate change and what they mean for urban planning.

The low-pressure system Bernd caused severe flooding in Western and Central Europe in July 2021. In Germany, the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate were and continue to be particularly affected. In addition, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland were the most affected European neighbors.

There is still acute danger in Erftstadt-Blessem. A massive crater had formed here in the course of the floods, causing three residential buildings and part of the historic castle to collapse. In the meantime, the all-clear has been given in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg: Bavaria has ended the state of emergency and the water levels on the Rhine and Lake Constance continue to fall. In the west, the clean-up work is progressing and the levels of the Ruhr and Moselle are also falling, but the situation remains critical. Dams can still break, houses and roads can still be washed away and collapse.

In Germany, the 2021 floods have been described as the worst flood disaster in decades. The current (July 22, 2021) confirmed death toll is over 170. 122 people died in the district of Ahrweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate, and 40,000 are also affected by the consequences of the floods. Some of them still have no electricity or water. In NRW, 48 people lost their lives and one person also died in Bavaria. In addition, more than 150 people are still missing.
Several media outlets have also reported that looters and disaster tourists have “visited” the affected areas in the wake of the flood disaster. However, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Andreas Müller, press spokesman for the Aachen police, and a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior in North Rhine-Westphalia have now denied the information about looting. There had been no major problems of this kind to date.

How the 2021 floods came about

Although floods are part of the natural process, they cause more damage worldwide than any other force of nature. Floods are caused on the one hand by the tides or melting snow and on the other by one-off events such as tsunamis, storm surges or so-called floods of the century or even millennium floods. The 2021 flood disaster is already being referred to as the flood of the century.
The starting point for the 2021 floods was the comparatively stationary low-pressure system Bernd, which led to continuous rain and severe thunderstorms over north-western Switzerland, Ticino, eastern Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Saxony. The German Weather Service reported up to 150 liters of rain per night.

Water levels in some places exceeded the highs of the 2005 Alpine floods

As the following video clearly explains, our soil can no longer store the water volumes after a certain point in time during prolonged rainfall. The water then flows unhindered into the nearby streams and rivers. The surrounding floodplain landscapes, which have formed as a result of natural flooding, are flooded. This is a natural process, especially during the months when the snow melts. It only becomes a problem when, firstly, the flood waters rise above their “normal” levels (in 2021, some bodies of water exceeded the high levels of the Alpine floods in 2005 and the floods in Switzerland in 2007) and, secondly, the corresponding floodplain areas are or become more and more populated.

This is why the flood waves lasted so long

The flood disaster took a different course in the areas affected by the 2021 floods. In the mountain regions, the heavy rain caused the streams and rivers to swell quickly. The flooding was rapid but brief. At the edge of the Alps, on the other hand, the water rose slowly but steadily. This is why the flood waves lasted for days in NRW and Rhineland-Palatinate, among other places: The water level did not drop. The water washed out many houses or even carried them away. According to geomorphologist Michael Dietze, quoted here by the FAZ, the higher the flow velocity and the higher the water level, the stronger the forces that can push cars and containers in front of them.

Heavy rainfall events are increasing as a result of climate change. This has now been scientifically proven several times. However, it is difficult to attribute individual events – such as the 2021 floods – to climate change. This was also confirmed by Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in a statement to the German Science Media Center (SMC). According to the climate researcher, weather events today are always a combination of the usual weather coincidence and the changed boundary conditions caused by the greatly increased amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Lamia Messari-Becker, Professor of Building Technology and Building Physics at the University of Siegen, also shares this view in an interview with Deutschlandfunk: Weather extremes and natural disasters would be part of humanity, but climate change would intensify them. We must now work on early warning systems and improve them massively.

British professor defines monumental system failure

In this context, the question is being raised as to whether disaster prevention in Germany has failed. Several politicians – including Karl Lauterbach and Annalena Baerbock – have criticized risk prevention. Baerbock called for a “threefold national effort” in the ARD morning show. More climate adaptation measures must be implemented. Cities must be rebuilt and rivers must be given more space, said the Green Chancellor.

Michael Theurer from the FDP told the dpa news agency that he saw serious failings in civil protection. For him, the Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, bore direct personal responsibility.

Criticism also came from abroad. British hydrology professor Hannah Cloke defined a “monumental system failure” in the Sunday Times. Satellites had detected the signs in good time and the German authorities had been forewarned.

Horst Seehofer, on the other hand, maintains the structure of the civil protection system in his official statement, as he announced during his visit to the Steinbach dam in Euskirchen. According to a spokesperson, the German government also considers the criticism to be premature. They are still concerned with rescuing people.

Armin Schuster, head of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, also rejected the criticism. Schuster told ZDF that the warning infrastructure had worked and that the German Weather Service had warned relatively well with 150 warning messages. You can read more about the different voices here.

Urban planning: Andrea Gebhard now sees municipalities and federal states as having a duty

In her interview on Deutschlandfunk radio, civil engineer Lamia Messari-Becker called for a different approach to urban planning. She made specific reference to the models of the water-sensitive city and the sponge city. Excess water should not be allowed to overload the sewage system. Accordingly, it must be drained off quickly, said Messari-Becker. Large green spaces would also have to be planned for the reconstruction, and dismantling would be essential. The sewage system would have to be adapted and retention basins planned. You have to learn to build with nature – not against it, says the civil engineer.

“Landscape plans must be given a different status”

Andrea Gebhard, President of the Federal Chamber of Architects, takes a similar view. The landscape architect and urban planner took over the BAK presidency in May 2021. Speaking to G+L about the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, the highest representative of the German architectural profession said: “We have to treat our land differently. We need retention areas, we need to analyze the course of the river from beginning to end and take a closer look at settlement areas. As in other countries, people in Germany are settling in areas that are not actually suitable for settlement from a flood protection perspective. The conversion of a city should always include flood and climate protection as well as recreational provision and biodiversity. In this respect, it is essential to get much more involved in the conceptual work, but also in the formal work. For example, landscape plans need to be given a completely different status because they consider the overall land use.”

“We as a society must act”

Above all, according to Andrea Gebhard, the authorities now have a duty to seize the opportunity – and also to adapt land use plans, landscape plans, development plans and green structure plans as well as integrated urban development concepts to the challenges. “I have been practicing urban planning and landscape architecture for over 30 years. We have discussed the issues time and again, identified the threats and opportunities, but their relevance was sometimes not recognized. Now this relevance is hitting us with full force. We as a society must act,” says Andrea Gebhard.

“ACT NOW” – the urgent need to act on climate change is also the topic of the July 2021 issue of G+L. In the guest-curated issue, the planning collective bauchplan ).( calls on people to take action now to create a climate-friendly future. Read more about the G+L issue ACT NOW here.

Baumeister Academy winner Andreas Maierhofer is in love. Heavily. The first weeks of his internship at leónwohlhage in Berlin are over and his passionate liaison with architecture is in full swing.

New city, new office, new people, new projects, new tasks, new love?

I’m in a frenzy of emotions. I met her four weeks ago. She is exciting. She has cast a spell over me. And now she won’t let me go. She wants more. More time, more attention. Initial infatuation turned into passionate devotion and now a solid relationship. While I tried to keep my new affair at a distance at the beginning, she became more demanding and affectionate from day to day. I’m not talking about a woman, but about an old acquaintance, architecture.

The adventure in Berlin with léonwohlhage has been going on for four weeks now and it still tingles like on the first day. Only the classic shame that you feel at the beginning of every new relationship has now given way to a pleasant familiarity. I have found my place in the competition team. Here I work with my colleagues in an area of responsibility that probably comes closest to that of the university. Not only because it primarily involves purely conceptual activities, but also because it has parallels in terms of somewhat unsuccessful time management – whether that’s depressing or reassuring remains to be seen. In contrast to university, however, it is not, as is so often the case, various leisure activities that usually seem more interesting than working on your own design until shortly before the deadline. It’s the continuous development of each idea. Every day until the deadline is spent questioning the concept anew. It is not uncommon for the best ideas to come just before the deadline. Which brings us back to the dilemma: the exciting but time-consuming love-hate relationship with architecture.

Social life gives way to architecture

In the last two weeks before the deadline, the days get longer and longer and you share more and more dinners with your work colleagues. I realize that you need a lot of passion for architecture to give yourself over to it so recklessly. It’s good to do this in an environment where you can have a beer at midnight between all the plans.