FOWARA

INTERREG III B-Project FOWARA

The extreme floods in Europe in recent years have caused increasing concern to the public as well as to decision makers and land owners.

As an important strategy to face these issues, forested water detention areas are regarded as a structural solution helpful to mitigate flooding risks on a local or regional level.

The project Fowara (Forested Water Retention Areas) launched in 2003 and completed in summer 2006 included contributors from Germany, France and Netherland. As a result of a pluridisciplinary approach, strategies for a sustainable management of such areas were developed and tested.

The input of the Institute for Landscape Management (Siepmann-Schinker – Sittler) was to assess the response of the vegetation to such submersions. It included a monitoring of symptoms displayed by various tree species. Based on these observations, it was possible to get insight into their sensitivity to such flooding events. Likewise the documentation and analysis of plant communities exposed to such floodings in various retention basins provided insights into their responses to such ecological changes.

Results of these surveys are now available in the guidelines (see reference below):

Armbruster, J., Muley-Fritze, A., Pfarr, U., Rhodius, R., Siepmann-Schinker, D., Sittler, B., Späth, V., Trémolières, M., Rennenberg, H., Kreuzwieser, J. (2006): FOWARA – Forested Water Retention Areas. Guideline for decision makers, forest managers and land owners. – Selbstverlag, Freiburg, 84 S.

This publication (8 € + postal fees) is available from: NABU Inst. For Landscape Ecology and Nature Conservation Sandbachst. 2 77815 BÜHL (D)

EU (Interreg III)

Dr. Benoît Sittler, Daniel Siepmann-Schinker