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Germany  increased floods due to morphological changes and loss of flood plains

Source: UBA 2010

The man-made changes to many German rivers were designed to create land for industry and housing, make waters navigable, intensify agriculture, utilise hydropower, and protect against flooding. Owing to the straightening and shortening of river courses, flood waves now travel faster and transport larger volumes of water per unit of time. For example, since the first large-scale straightening of the Rhine in the mid-19th century by hydro-construction master Johann Gottfried Tulla, the number of riverine meadows on the Upper Rhine between Basle and Karlsruhe has diminished by 87 %.

All in all, the flood plain of the Upper Rhine was reduced by 60 % or 130 km². River straightening measures lead to a shortening of the run – on the Upper Rhine by approximately 82 km, and on the Lower Rhine by approximately 23 km – which in turn led to an acceleration of runoff. For example, the flow rate of the flood wave in the Rhine on the section between Basle and Maxau has been reduced from 64 to 23 hours.