Cross-border flood damage estimation report

Flood hazard and flood risk assessments are an integral part of the flood risk management cycle and are required by the EU Floods Directive for each Member State. However, the national design of the requirements varies considerably across the EU altogether and the Euregio Meuse Region in particular. On the basis of interviews with experts, the national administrative regulations and technical arrangements of flood risk assessment were compared for the Euregio Meuse regions in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

In all three countries, flood risks are considered at regional level, which has the advantage that local expert knowledge can be included. However, in Germany and Belgium, monetary flood damages are not yet calculated to determine flood risk. Instead, various semi-quantitative approaches exist for estimating flood risk and prioritising flood protection measures. In the Netherlands, quantitative models for assessing monetary damages are used. Two main models emerge, one being used at the level of large flood events such as breaches, the other at the level of regional settings combined with low inundation flooding. Within the limits of their application of small to large floods, these models provide interesting quantitative results.

A further development of existing damage models could standardise the currently heterogeneous situation with regard to the calculation of monetary flood damage and flood risk. However, this requires comparable data on flood damages in the three countries.