The Ardennes and Eifel region had an immense rainfall event on Thursday July 15th.

The consequences were very severe on tributaries to the Rhine and Meuse in Belgium, Germany, and to the Meuse and in the Netherlands (in the town of Valkenburg)

In all of the countries involved the flood warning was not always understood, by the public and may not have been on time and correct.

Resevoir construction and operation played a role in all three counries

Do we really understand the changes in flood risk due to climate change?

Institutional errors were made with spatial planning. This is a fact in the Netherlands. The worst case has a return period of 25 or 100 years. These floods were different.

The central areas of villages which have been built over a hundred years ago, have often suffered from floods, have we (mis)understood warnings from past events?