Retention basins – experience of flood control in Styria

Flood control is attributed great importance in the wellwooded, but also in some parts, densely populated Austrian state Styria. The primary objective is to infiltrate the precipitation in the area before draining it off into the receiving water. If this should not be an option the construction of technical protective structures are necessary. To reduce the maximum flood discharge, which increased in the last years due to climate change, flood control reservoirs offer often the only possibility, when linear protective structures are no alternative.
From the Government of Styria, the Department of Water Protective Economy and Groundwater Resources supervises the interests of flood control. The department supports and sponsors the construction of flood control basins already for decades. The constantly increasing ecological as well as landscape architecture requirements have been integrated into the design of the retention basins and have become standard with these constructions today. The electronic capture of the basins is conducted by Graz University of Technology, Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management. The aim of this work is to create a tool for optimizing the management of the basins. Operational experience of the constructions is attributed special attention to in order to find optimized solutions for future projects.