Weser River Basin (Germany)
With 452 km length is the Weser river the longest German river to reach the sea of which the basin
lies entirely within the national territory. The river basin includes an area of 49,000 km2 and about
9.3 million inhabitants. The northern part of the river basin is characterized by the Atlantic climate,
the southern part is influenced by continental climate.
The average annual rainfall ranges from
600-1,100 mm and the average temperature from 5°C to 9°C. Long term average discharges
(1941-2002) at the gauging station Intschede (approx. 80% of river basin catchment) are: 327 m3/s
(average flow); 118 m3/s (minimum average flow); and 1,230 m3/s (maximum average flow). The
Weser is a pluvio-nival type with high water flow in winter and low water flow from June to October
(Galbiati et al. 2008).
Situations of relatively water scarcity in 2003 and 2009 in the Weser basin raise the discussions
how to define thresholds and to set priorities to different water uses as energy production, potable
water abstraction, shipping and industrial consumption, etc.. The problem of a fair water
distribution is increased by the fact that water demands e.g. in Hannover increase in hot summer
times by one quarter.
The German case study is divided into two sub-cases: Soltau-Fallingbostel close to the Uelzener Becken as example for a rural
region is a relatively densely populated agrarian landscape dominated by irrigated farming. Climate
change and the risk of increasing water shortage situations may foster the conflict between water
abstraction for farming, minimum river flows and potable water abstraction.
The urban sub-case
will be the Region Hannover with around 1.13 Million inhabitants including the capital of Lower
Saxony.
Already existent contacts to stakeholders and ongoing related projects will facilitate data collection and stakeholder platforms. Projects to be mentioned are the KLIFF-WA project (2009 to 2013) on
adaptation to climate change also intervening in the Region Hannover and for the rural case two
projects the Interreg IVB funded "Aquarius Project" (Farmers as water managers in the North Sea
Region) and KLIMZUG-Nord (mainly funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research)
focussing on adaptation strategies to climate change in Hamburg and adjacent regions of which
the Uelzener Becken is part of.
