Sixteen enthusiasts had joined the excursion, students and leaders, who met a total of 20 SAWA partners. The SAWA partners both guided the group and gave lectures. The participants thought it was great pleasure and very interesting to meet them all.

This was a successful concept that will be repeated. The next excursion will take place in Sweden/Norway 9-13 May.

In February, participants in the SAWA Master course travelled around Ger-many and the Netherlands with a gro-up of students from different countri-es.

The excursion was organized as part of the course Integrated Flood Risk Management, which is part of the SAWA project. The partners in the project welcomed the group and sha-red their knowledge and experience.

In order to demonstrate the importance of using a bottom-up perspective in the development of a local flood risk management plan, according to the Flood Directive, work started in autumn 2010, to develop a draft action plan for how to deal with flooding in the Municipality of Lidköping, Sweden.

AWA NEWSLETTER # 3 April 2011

SAWAhelps European countries adapt

to a changing environment

Participants in the SAWA Master course Integrated Flood Risk Management went on their first excursion trip. They visited Ger-many and the Netherlands.

The municipality of Lidköping is si-tuated on the southern shore of Lake Vänern. Its main town, Lidköping, is low-lying and at great risk of being flooded by the lake especially when you take into consideration the expec-ted consequences of climate change.

A working group was created con-sisting of representatives from the two county administrative boards’ SAWA-team and the municipality’s different departments: Planning and Construc-tion, Water and Sewage, Heat pro-duction, Environment and Health, provision of Electricity, provision of

Broadband and Crisis Management.The working group has had four

workshops. The result is a draft action program based on the vulnerability of each sector. The program has been presented to the Municipal executive committee. It will then of course be up to the municipality to decide on how to use the results.

What has been produced so far is a thorough list of what happens when the water level of Lake Vänern rises centimetre by centimetre and a pre-liminary list of adaptive measures. Most of the information used is from

personal remembrance or recordings from the latest important flood which took place during the autumn/winter 2000/2001. Interesting has been to notice the importance of the interde-pendence of the different sectors: if electricity goes no pump will work, if broadband connections are cut off crisis management will be seriously hampered etc.

The workshops showed that neither the main heating plant nor the sewage plant of the town will be able to cope with a water level of more than +46,5 m above sea level, which corresponds to an estimated 100 year flood in today’s climate. The Municipality has to decide whether it is a risk worth ta-king.

The discussions in the working gro-up have been intense and interesting and demonstrate the importance of people from the different departments sitting together at the same table..

AWA

Creating a Local Action Plan

Germany/the Netherlands 21-25 February 2011

SAWA Excursion

Lake Vänern

Julia Mußbach, Leuphana University Lüneburg

Excursion participants

SAWA NewsletterEditor:Catrin Hasewinkelcatrin.hasewinkel@sawa-project.euPhone: + 46 54 19 71 16

Responsible publisher:Jeff Marengwajeff.marengwa@sawa-project.euPhone: + 49 40 428 26 25 18

Address:Ministry of Urban Development and Environment Agency for Roads, Bridges and Waters Germany - LSBGEuropa Center, Sachsenkamp 1-3, D-20097 Hamburg

Script stop - Newsletter 41/6 2011

www.sawa-project.eu

Investing in the future by working together for a sustainable and competitive region

SAWA Book PublishedIn October 2010, Prof. Dr Miklas Scholz has published his book Wetland Systems on Storm Water Management Control with Springer.

The restyled exhibition in Karlstad

SAWA wishes Happy Easter

New Project ManagerIn autumn 2010, Dagmar Golter-man took over the roll as SAWAs project manager. Former project manager Christoph Küepferle left the project due to other commitments. Jeff Marengwa looks at the change of manager in a positive way.

- The change of manager gives us a fresh restart. I am sure Dagmar Golter-man will fill the gap after Christoph in a very competent way, says Jeff Ma-rengwa, SAWA project leader.

Erik Pasche our friend, colleague, and Sawa member has past away. He died unexpectedly, on the night of 1 Decem-ber 2010, triggered by the consequences of a heart attack.

Erik Pasche was professor at Ham-burg University of Technology and enjoyed a very good reputation in the field of Hydrodynamics. He was known for his engagement in the field of flood risk management and the consequences of climate change, where he was con-sidered as expert European wide. Erik Pasche was also one of SAWA´s work package leaders. The SAWA project has lost a dear, respected and dedicated co-worker.

In Memorial

Wetland Systems (ISBN 978 1 84996 458 6) covers water and environmental management and assessment aspects relevant for the drainage and treat-ment of storm water. It provides a des-criptive overview of complex wetland systems such as Sustainable Flood Retention Basins (SFRB) and the ge-neral design issues involved. Wetland Systems deals comprehensively with not only the design, operation, main-tenance and water quality monitoring of traditional and novel wetland sys-tems, but also covers an-alysis of asset

performance, modelling of treatment processes, performances of existing infrastructure, and sustainability and economic issues. The book covers the recent SAWA output on SFRB used for flood and diffuse pollution control. This is the key contribution of the SAWA partner The University of Salford (previously The University of Edinburgh).

Dagmar Golterman and Jeff Marengwa

On 26-27 January Karlstad University held a large conference on Climate and Safety in Karlstad with over 200 attendants from all over the country.

The presentations dealt with a range of issues from how Norway and Ger-many deals with the Flood Directive within SAWA, quantifying flooding costs and the special challenges facing Lake Vänern and the Göta River in a changing climate, to more down to earth issues like using adaptive mea-sures such as green roofs and rain gar-dens.

Many of the lecturers referred to results from SAWA and in the ming-ling room SAWA had a stand of its own with the roll ups, a hot of the press information leaflet about SAWA in Sweden, fact sheets from a num-ber of SAWA projects in Sweden and Norway and some well tasting sweets distributed free in small SAWA pas-tille boxes.

Oddrun Sunniva-Waago Yvonne Andersson-Sköld

Mariele Evers, Bent ChristensenJohan Mannheimer and Lars Nyberg

The SAWA stand

SpeakersSAWA speakers were well repre-sented at a conference in Sweden.