Hydrological challenges in the Rhine- and Meuse basins

Abstract

Society is facing more and more socio-economic problems as result of flood occurrences in western Europe. One of the world’s largest re-insurance companies, Munich Re, describes in its Annual Review of Natural Catastrophe 2002 that floods account for 30% of all loss events and 42% of all fatalities due to natural catastrophes in 2002 (Munich Re, 2003). The total economic loss by floods was estimated at US$ 27 bn in that year. Furthermore, Munich Re (2003) ranked Rotterdam-Amsterdam (Randstad) metropolis in the hazard index at position 18 of the 50 megacities in the world. Although this is a first attempt to index hazard risk of metropolis, and in case of the Randstad the hazard is based on flood and wind, it shows that there is a major economic and societal risk, partly induced by floods