Den Flüsssen mehr Raum geben - Umsetzungsrestriktionen in Recht und Praxis

Abstract

In 1996, 2005, and most recently in 2010 the German Federal Water Act was revised. These revisions aimed at stronger instruments to give more space to the rivers. What is their impact in practice? This paper is going to answer this question with the help of a policy analysis along the flood protection concept of the Land Saxony-Anhalt. For the first time, this concept was prepared in 2003, with a planning horizon until 2010. In the analysis, two periods are regarded: before and after the Federal Flood Control Act 2005. It is shown in this article that the law has not responded to the restrictions for implementation in practice. The restrictions, namely, are in a realm where other stakeholders than water management—for example regional planning, local land use planning or landowners—play a key role in the implementation of aims of water management. In the process of spatial flood protection measures, the German legislator pursues a control paradigm: this means that there is a trend to strengthen the instruments of water management in each reform of the law. In fact, however, instruments are needed which would enable integrative planning processes in order to cope with conflicts in spatial flood protection, and in order to support a rethinking in water management—from a technocratic and controlling towards an integrating mode of governance. Integrative means an early and active enrolment of relevant stakeholders in planning processes