Renaturierte Fließgewässer und Feuchtgebiete – ihr Beitrag zum Wasserrückhalt

Renaturalised watercourses and wetlands - their contribution to water retention: Natural or restored rivers and wetlands are important habitats for the adaptation to climate change. However, only less than 10 percent of rivers and lakes in Germany currently achieve the good ecological status required by the EU Water Framework Directive. In 86 percent of these surface waters, a lack of water body structure, along with other stressors, is responsible for the failure to achieve the target. The condition of the floodplains is also severely deficient. The utilisation of watercourses for agriculture, infrastructure or energy production has led to them being increasingly straightened, deepened, dammed and equipped with bank protection. This has created a large-scale drainage landscape from which the water is drained as quickly as possible. This type of water management allowed extensive land reclamation and intensive utilisation of the land. Due to the changing conditions of climate change, resilient river floodplain landscapes must be restored to retain water in the area, protect against floods and have positive impacts to nature and increase biodiversity. This requires the implementation of a variety of measures. Restoration measures on rivers and floodplains improve water retention and at the same time have positive effects for the animal and plant communities living there. Only through the consistent implementation of restoration measures and the conversion of the drainage landscape into a wetland landscape is it possible to improve the quality of our water bodies.