Flussgebietsbewirtschaftung im Bundesstaat

The EU’s Water Framework Directive obliges its Member States to conform to the approach of integrated river basin management. In Germany, this requires the federal states to cooperate in this respect, which has proven difficult so far and has often led to uncoordinated management decisions which have had considerable repercussions in terms of river basin displacement. A prominent example of this problem is the pollution in the sediment in the port of Hamburg, which is carried down from the upper reaches of the River Elbe and hinders the continued conservation of the port. Using this example, the authors of this book examine how such river basin pollution can be dealt with within the parameters of the EU’s Water Framework Directive. They reveal that previous attempts to comply with the stipulations for integration and coordination have been insufficient and suggest how this state of affairs can be remedied with more effective cooperation between the federal government and the federal states in the future.