The River and the Risk

The project deals with flood prevention and spatial design potentials in the Ahr Valley after the flood disaster in 2021. Five future scenarios were developed, based on extensive research on insurances, laws, regulations, risk-zones, traditional landscape techniques as well as flood cooperatives.

Three years after the flood disaster, the reconstruction work in the Ahr Valley is still ongoing and there is much criticism of the renewed narrowing of the river and the renewed development close to the banks. Plans are being discussed for nineteen, extremely costly retention basins as new flood protection measures. But is there an alternative spatial potential of dealing with the flood plains? How to design with a risk and not against it? How to plan within landscapes that are constantly changing? How to define and utilize risk-zones long-term, setting an example for similar landscapes?

1. Research
I went on two extensive research trips to the area equipped with a camera, a recording device and a drone, conducted multiple interviews, researched on site, in archives and libraries (on site and in Berlin). I wanted to find out about the romantic and touristic past of the valley, the historic and most recent flood protection measures, the transformation of the area as well as the relationship of the inhabitants to the river, which also include old tales, myths, knowledge and old travel guides.

2. Mapping
In the second phase, I focused on the laws and regulations of flood protection in Germany as well as land use management and strategies. The entire course of the River Ahr in Rhineland-Palatinate is under landscape protection. Through method of mapping and research, I analyzed risk zones, the cultural landscape, which actors are part of the large and complex issue of flood protection, the protection of riparian communities and the management of floodplains and the planning approach to risk zones.

3. Speculation
The last part of the work is a fictitious narrative in five parts (2024-2124) about the future of the river and its floodplains which contains multiple design interventions. Weaving in the research, every future scenario has a different focus, such as the influence of insurances on the region, the rights of the river, the self-initiated establishments of cooperatives, or the use of traditional and new land practices. Every scenario is underpinned by fictitious laws, regulations and documents, challenging existing ones. The speculative approach makes a suggestion on how to deal with the river wetlands from a longterm point of view, acknowledging that the ecosystem river is constantly changing and floods will always be a natural part of it.

Text von Leonie Hartung.