Financial compensation and legal restrictions for using land for flood retention

Abstract

Flood retention is perceived as an efficient measure for flood risk management that requires areas dedicated for temporal flood storage as well as technical structures. Landowners provide land for retention services and accept usage and development restrictions. Such services coming from private property limit the individual right of disposal and have to be compensated. Financial compensation for retention services has to be legally embedded and transparent on its calculation, disbursement and funding. Compensations can cover various damages, most notably loss of yield, and use different payment arrangements. Compensation models go hand in hand with legal restrictions for the usage and development rights for the provided land. The chapter provides a comprehensive overview on the economic logic of financial compensations and legal restriction for land dedicated for flood retention purposes. It presents the status quo in the scientific discussion, illustrates that with European cases and reflects on related shortcomings and challenges.