Prevention from Dike Failure by Emergency Flood Control Measures

Abstract

The risk of failure of a flood protection system must always be taken into account. During flooding events, appropriate interim protection systems must be at hand and ready to be deployed to support weak and overloaded structures. Usually sandbags, eventually in combination with fascines and geotextiles, are in use to defend endangered dike stretches in case of emergency. Sandbags offer highly flexible employment, however the enormous personal, material and time consuming efforts required for installation and dismantling are problematic. Therefore, more effective constructions for emergency flood control are needed. Within the research projects HWS-Mobile, DeichSCHUTZ, and DeichKADE different constructions based on the use of flexible membranes have been developed or are in development to ensure easy and effective countermeasures to secure dike stretches, which are in risk of breakage. Successful applications of the developed systems have taken place during the catastrophic flood event at the river Elbe in Northern Germany in 2013.