'Our plan worked': How Vienna prepared itself for a 5,000-year flood

Storm Boris is the latest deluge in one of the most flood-plagued periods in Europe in the past 500 years, but one city escaped relatively unscathed. The steps Vienna took to prepare for extreme rainfall may hold lessons for how other cities can face deluges to come.

When record rainfall brought by Storm Boris doused Vienna on 15 September, the impact looked dramatic: flooded roads, evacuated houses, a gentle stream that turned into a roaring torrent. In the space of only five days, between twice and five times as much rain fell on the city and other parts of Austria as in an entire average month of September. 

And yet, considering the onslaught of water, "we got away quite lightly", noted a Viennese journalist, referring to reports of an estimated ten lightly injured people, and 15 evacuated houses in the city. "On the whole, the [city's] ingenious flood management system resisted the masses of water," concluded another local journalist.

In fact, evidence from previous big floods suggests that a number of protective strategies used by Vienna, and Austria more generally, are proving effective – and offering vital lessons to others battling increasingly extreme weather.

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