Abstract: The River Rhine situated in the middle of central Europe is a striking example for the diverging concerns of natural wetland schemes and human uses. The River Rhine basin covers an area of 190 000 km2 and is settled by 50 million people, living in nine different countries. Only in the 19th century the natural moving water courses of the River Rhine were fixed in a singular riverbed allowing the human utilization of the flood prone areas by agriculture, settlement and infrastructure. Extreme floods in the last decade of the 20th century revealed the risks and led to a paradigm shift in the evaluation of the strategies of flood prone uses. Extreme floods are a regular part of natural river schemes and only the design of flood prone uses decides the amount of damage. This new awareness of risk led to the International Flood Action Plan of the River Rhine in 1998 defining 5 guidingprinciples:(1)water is part of the whole,(2)store water,(3)let the river expand,(4)be aware of the danger,and (5)integrated and concerted action.These guidingprinciples were focused on 4 action targets, which have to be accomplished by the stakeholders in politics, administration and the community of users by 2020: (1)reduce damage risks—reduction of damage risks up to 10% by 2005 and up to 25% by 2020,(2)reduce flood levels—reduction of extreme flood levels up to 30 cm by 2005 and up to 70 cm by 2020,(3)increase awareness of floodings—draft of risk maps for 50% of the floodplains by 2000 and 100% by 2005,and (4)improve the system of flood forecasting—prolong the forecasting period by 50% in 2000 and 100% in 2005. For the implementation of these actions targets a catalog of measures which has been derived with an investment volume of 12 billions until 2020, the realization is according to the plan. The Oder flooding in 1997 and the Elbe flooding in 2002 with an amount of damage in billions of Euro underlined emphatically the necessity of precautionary measures in water management and their integration in the politics of spatial planning, economics, agriculture and nature conservation.

Key words: flood action plan, River Rhine, water management