Mayor Friedrich Marx welcomed around 50 participants to the opening event in the Göttenbach auditorium. In his short speech, he emphasized that not only the devastating flood on the Ahr in 2021, but also events in the surrounding area such as 2018 in Fischbach and more recently in Kirn-Sulzbach showed how important it is to take precautions against floods and heavy rainfall events. He also pointed out that the involvement of the local population was of great importance when the concept was being drawn up by the commissioned office Dr. Pecher. "However, the subsequent implementation of the concept is not just about what the city can do, but also about what the citizens themselves can do as a precautionary measure."
Dipl.-Ing. Heinrich Webler and Dr.-Ing. Silja Baron from Dr. Pecher AG, Mainz branch, then presented the results of their investigations to date. The office has been commissioned by the city to draw up the HSVK and has already worked on the same matter in the Herrstein-Rhaunen municipality and for the Kirner Land municipality. The experts are therefore familiar with the region.
Dr. Baron first presented the procedure for creating the concept. The study area is the entire city of Idar-Oberstein with its 13 districts, with a particular focus on the dangers of river flooding and flooding due to heavy rainfall. The objectives of the concept are to raise awareness of flood hazards among citizens, to demonstrate alternatives to technical measures, to promote personal initiative and responsibility for private flood prevention and to create an individual package of measures for site-specific flood and heavy rainfall prevention solutions. Silja Baron also emphasized that flood prevention is a joint task that must be implemented by both the municipality and the citizens. The concept, which will be supplemented with the knowledge gained after the information events and then has to be approved by the Structural and Approval Directorate (SGD), will therefore also contain information on the topic of self-provision.
The flood and flash flood hazard maps of the state served as the basis for the previous evaluations. These can already be used by all citizens to obtain information on water depths and flow velocities during heavy rainfall events or on the spatial extent of flooding during flood events for their place of residence. The maps are available online at https://wasserportal.rlp-umwelt.de/ (flash flood hazard maps) and https://hochwassermanagement.rlp.de/ (flood hazard maps).
Dr. Pecher AG then supplemented this basic data with its own findings and water inspections, in which numerous citizens also participated. From this, a risk analysis was drawn up for the entire urban area and locations were identified that have deficits in terms of flood protection. At the same time, measures were proposed to remedy the deficits. Heinrich Webler then briefly presented the individual locations and properties with deficits. A total of 24 such danger spots were identified for the Oberstein district and three each for the Enzweiler and Hammerstein districts. Those present were able to provide further information on some of these from previous events, which will now be added to. The participants also took the opportunity to ask the experts numerous questions on the topic.
The information events for the remaining districts of Idar-Oberstein will now follow the same pattern. There will also be a special event for the agricultural sector in the fall on the subject of erosion hazards. Once the HSVK has been finalized and approved, the results and recommendations for action must of course be communicated extensively and made known to the public.
Dates of further public information events:
- For the Tiefenstein and Algenrodt districts on Monday, June 17, 2024, at 6 p.m. in the Göttenbach auditorium
- For the districts of Weierbach and Georg-Weierbach on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, at 6 p.m. in the Hessensteinhalle
- For the districts of Idar, Göttschied and Regulshausen on Monday, July 8, 2024, at 6 p.m. in the Heidensteilhalle
- For the districts of Nah-, Mittel- and Kirchenbollenbach on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 6 p.m. in the Nahbollenbach multi-purpose hall