Source URL: http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/8762 Print date: 03 September 2019 09:16:10 How a Catastrophic Flood of the Gürbe River Triggered the Rethinking of Local Flood Protection Melanie Salvisberg On the evening of 29 July 1990, after a warm and sunny day, the sky over the Gantrisch region in the Swiss pre- Alps suddenly darkened. A huge thunderstorm appeared—a thunderstorm that not only set a meteorological record, but also changed the approach to flood protection in the Gürbe River area profoundly. Within a short period, the water level rose rapidly, causing the 29-kilometer-long river, a tributary that joins the Aare River south of Bern, to overflow. The water and the bed load caused severe damage to hydraulic structures, farmland, settlements, and traffic facilities near the river. The total cost of the damage was estimated to be 40 million Swiss francs. Flooded settlement in Toffen after the event of 29 July 1990. Photograph by Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_LC0940-007-015. Accessed via ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv, on 14 August 2019. Click here to view source. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . Although the Gürbe Valley was known to be flood-prone, due to frequent thunderstorms, steep slopes, soil with low water-storage capacity, and soft rock in the upper reaches, the extent of the event was a shock, especially because extensive measures had been taken to prevent inundations since the mid-nineteenth century. The efforts had started with alterations to the Gürbe River from 1855 to 1881. With the intent of protecting the Gürbe Valley from flooding but also of reclaiming new land from the swampy flood plain, the previously meandering