Digital Information System Warns of Threat from Heavy Rain
Jülich, 25 May 2020 – Climate change is causing heavy rain to occur increasingly often in Germany. The results are flooded basements and underground car parks, fast-flowing streams, and mudslides. The state of Hesse has been hit particularly badly. Because an increase in incidents of heavy rain is predicted, the Hessian Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology (HLNUG), at the direction of the Hessian Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, has launched the “KLIMPRAX” project, which addresses heavy rain and disaster prevention in municipalities, and in which Forschungszentrum Jülich has been involved together with Leibniz University Hannover since 2016. The partners developed methods that have now made it possible to create the first heavy rain reference map in Germany for identifying municipalities at especially high risk. This map is being used in a digital information system.