Central European floods 2002: lessons learned in Saxony

In August 2002, Germany and particularly Saxony were hit by a severe flood affecting more than two-thirds of Saxony's territory. This disastrous flood event gave rise to reconsideration and redirection of flood protection and related disaster management in Saxony. A comprehensive strategic approach was developed. Primarily, any reconstruction and flood protection measure is based on Flood Protection Concepts, which have been developed for all relevant rivers till 2005. In these concepts, more than 1600 individual flood protection measures are proposed and 548 flood risk maps for all communities at risk are available. With a new methodology specially developed for this task, all measures were prioritised, and a Flood Protection Investment Programme with considerable financial resources was put into operation. Furthermore, the new state flood centre ‘Landeshochwasserzentrum’ has been set up and became operational in 2004. It established an advanced full coverage forecast and alert system that has already demonstrated its reliable performance during recent floods.