Sustainability
New tool helps in extreme flooding
In Switzerland, too, far greater floods are possible than was previously assumed. A new modeling tool should now help in coping with them.
Heavy rainfall is increasing with climate change – and with it the danger of flooding. The Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks at the University of Bern shows that in Switzerland far greater floods are possible than was previously assumed, comparable with the devastating storms in the summer of 2021 in Germany. The calculations with the new modeling tool show that extreme rainfall can cause lots of rivers to flood in just a short time. The damage occurs in different places at virtually the same time and skyrockets. Extreme flooding also interrupts transport connections. In a worst case scenario, this leads to diversions of 3,000 km – with corresponding consequences for commuters and supply chains.
This is why, in June 2022, the researchers stressed to the media just how essential it is to have coordinated supraregional emergency planning to be prepared for flooding of previously inconceivable dimensions. The aim now is for the tool to be used as an exercise tool for civil protection and blue-light organizations so that emergency planning can be improved and damage mitigated in the event of a catastrophe.