Auennationalpark Unteres Odertal: Niedrige Pegel setzen der Oderaue zu

Nationalparc Lower Oder Valley records exceptionally low water levels – impacts on water bodies, species and agriculture

Water is the key factor in a river floodplain. However, an unusual picture is currently emerging in nationalparc Lower Oder Valley : Germany’s only river floodplain national park is suffering from severe water shortages. Since the beginning of summer, water levels have been lower than usual. Numerous ditches, oxbow channels and standing water bodies in the floodplain have now dried up.

At the end of August, the water level in Polder B at the Schwedt pumping station was 514 cm, equivalent to 19 cm above the German datum zero. The Oder gauge at Stützkow currently shows 532 cm. Both values are well below the long-term average low-water level. Low water levels are also forecast to continue over the coming days. The data come from the gauge portal of the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment.

The main causes are low rainfall and high evaporation as a result of high temperatures. This also causes groundwater levels to fall. On the floodplain areas of the national park, they are currently in some places two metres or more below the ground surface.

The impacts are clearly visible in the landscape: where there is usually water, the ground is dry and water bodies are drying out. Species that depend on water, such as amphibians and fish, are particularly affected, as they rely on suitable water bodies as habitats and breeding grounds. The remaining water bodies are important refuges for animals and should not be disturbed.

Agriculture is also feeling the effects: drinking water for grazing animals sometimes has to be transported into the floodplain with considerable effort.

Dirk Treichel, Head of the National Park: “A floodplain without water – at first that sounds like a bad joke. In fact, even in our floodplain landscape, the massive impacts of human-made climate change and decades of targeted drainage of our landscape are now becoming apparent in dramatic fashion. Low water levels are, in principle, part of the natural dynamics of a river floodplain, but it becomes problematic when drought and high temperatures coincide over such a long period.”

Even though current water levels are very strongly shaped by the weather conditions of recent months, it is important to develop and implement long-term strategies for retaining water in the floodplain: outflows from the floodplain must be slowed down and reduced, and the water retention capacity of the floodplain landscape must be strengthened. In coordination with stakeholders in the area, the national park administration is implementing this, for example, through backwater retention measures such as at Roten Kolk, Eichwerder Dammgraben and Lubitzgraben; by reducing pumping station operation by setting higher shut-off levels, as in the Lunow-Stolper Polder; and by reconnecting oxbow channels, as is currently being done at Welsensee.

In addition, using water sparingly is important in all areas. Everyone can make a contribution here.

How the situation develops further will depend largely on the rainfall and temperatures in the coming weeks. One thing is already clear: this summer makes it very visible how devastating an acute water shortage is for the floodplain landscape of Nationalpark Unteres Odertal.