Restoring Floodplains in Europe

This book addresses the complex institutional dimensions to restoring floodplains. Despite the recent surge of interest in restoring floodplains among policy and research circles, as well as in the public domain, very few schemes for restoring functional floodplains have been put into practice in Europe to date. The book explores the reasons behind this discrepancy between interest and applications with an original, comparative analysis of the institutional drivers and constraints of floodplain restoration in Europe. It explains why so few projects have been successfully implemented, how recent policy shifts are creating new opportunities for floodplain restoration and what lessons for policy development and project management can be drawn from in-depth analysis of past and present schemes. At a time of rapidly growing interest in restoring floodplains as an important component of efforts to improve flood protection, enhance riparian habitats, strengthen catchment management, raise water quality and pursue integrated rural development, the book critically appraises the relationship between macro-level policy development and enforcement and micro-level project design and implementation. The book begins with two chapters setting out the case for floodplain restoration and assessing the relevant drivers and constraints of EU policy. The next three chapters analyse the policy contexts of floodplain restoration in France, Germany and Britain, addressing the principal drivers and constraints in the fields of water management, flood protection, nature conservation, spatial planning and agriculture. This is followed by six case studies of schemes to restore floodplains, divided between early schemes of the mid-1990s (Rheinvorland-Sud on the Upper Rhine, Bourret on the Garonne and the Long Eau project in England) and ongoing schemes of today (Lenzen on the Elbe, La Basse on the Seine and the Parrett Catchment Project). The book concludes by drawing lessons from the principal findings and providing recommendations for ways of developing policy and designing projects for restoring floodplains in the future.