Why we need to stop straightening rivers

Floods threaten more people globally than any other natural hazard. But nature offers a solution to this problem. A region in Germany’s east has been training local forests to absorb more water.

#floods #riverrestoration #wetlands

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

Follow Planet A on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dw_planeta?la...

Credits:
Report: Anne-Sophie Brändlin 
Camera: Marco Borowski / Mathias Wolff
Video editor: Neven Hillebrands 
Supervising Editor: Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann / Kiyo Dörrer
Fact check: Jennifer Collins
Thumbnail: Em Chabridon

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:43 We messed up rivers
02:57 Training forests 
06:04 Revitalizing old water courses 
10:55 What’s the price 
12:26 Transferring knowledge

Read more:

The flood situation in Europe:
https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/press/n...
https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news...

How we have messed up rivers:
https://joint-research-centre.ec.euro...
https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/top...
http://lrlr.landscapeonline.de/Articl...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...

How river and floodplain restoration reduces flood risk:
https://www.igb-berlin.de/en/news/bet...
https://www.ecrr.org/River-Restoratio...
https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/top...
https://www.eea.europa.eu/publication...
https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/...
https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topi...

European networks restoring wetlands
https://restore4life.eu/
https://www.spongeboost.eu/