4th RAINMAN Partner meeting in Meißen
The RAINMAN partnership met on 12.-13.November 2018 in Meißen, Germany, for two intensive days of exchange. The main topic guiding through the event was the RAINMAN Toolbox, a platform providing guidance to local public administration on the handling of heavy rain risks.
Within the impressive, historical town hall of Meißen, the participants were welcomed by the mayor Olaf Raschke, who underlined his commitment in the project with a vivid presentation: impressive pictures of past floodings after heavy rain events and the undertaken measures showed the rich experiences the city has in dealing with heavy rain risks. The city will bring these into the project and thus support the partnership in preparing the tools guiding other municipalities in reducing their risks. An excursion to the Kirchsteigbach and its small tributary valley of the Triebisch showed the participants a wide range of heavy risk reduction measures which were build there after the last heavy rain event which caused major damages.
This partner meeting not only had a special setting, but was also content-wise a specialty: the RAINMAN Advisory board came together for the first time and gave feedback and advice on the RAINMAN Toolbox: during the second day of the meeting each member presented their feedback on the requirements, expectations and needs for a toolbox giving guidance on heavy rain risk reduction from their different perspectives.
The topics discussed within the partnership were concentrated around the different tools and methods, which will form the toolbox at the end of the project: Starting at the first day with presentations and discussions addressing the assessment and mapping of heavy rain risks. The responsible partners from Poland, Austria, Hungary and Germany presented their status of work at their pilot activities in Lower Silesia, the city of Graz, Upper Austria and the Middle Tisza area. They discussed about the integration of the different approaches into the methodological framework concept.
The afternoon was dedicated to the tool on risk reduction measures. The partners activities within this section were discussed in five different sessions, structured according to the topics spatial planning, prevention in urban areas, retention concepts, early-warning and emergency response. Additionally, a catalogue of risk reduction measures will be put together, the possible structure was presented and discussion focused on next steps.
A summarizing report with all the agreements and results of the meeting will be available here soon.
