Urban solutions in municipal practice
As part of UrbanTec the visitors were given the opportunity to visit the flood protection of the city of Cologne.
Visitors were presented the flood protection strategy for the city of Cologne. The structural flood control measures and the technical resources (including FLIWAS = flood information and warning system, flood hazard maps) were presented and discussed. Then the small group visited a pumping station that is 26 meters deep under the earth.
Floodwater Protection of the City of Cologne
Of all major cities of Europe, the City of Cologne is the one most subject to flooding. It survived the most recent major flood in 1995 with Cologne Gauge registering a water level of 10.69 m. The flood of '95 required an extreme deployment not only of workers but also of material. While the response in 1995 prevented even worse damage and assistance in a very wide variety of forms was provided to the citizens in the areas affected by the flooding, it must be observed that Cologne only narrowly escaped a major catastrophe.
The Company
The Cologne Municipal Water Treatment Works (Kölner Stadtentwässerungsbetriebe Köln, AöR - or StEB for short) is a modern and innovative municipally owned company. To fulfil the overall mission of our spectrum of services, our staff features employees who come to us from many disciplines. Our tasks include the elimination of wastewater, flood protection and prevention, and the maintenance and expansion of the waters in and around Cologne. As part of our flood-protection mission, we at StEB apply the basic concept of preventative regional and supra-regional flood protection. The aim is to link reductions in damage potential and heightened awareness of the residual danger of flooding, on the one hand, with the main aspects of flood prevention, structural flood protection, flood management and individual precautionary measures.
