The WLV presented all children with the didactic BiberBerti brochures on the subject of flood protection and danger zone plans, which were created specifically to raise awareness of protection against natural hazards. They were also allowed to paint small wooden houses in the craft class. On October 9, 2017, the large flood simulation took place on the Schildlehenbach, above the torrent barrier. The parents and the deputy mayor, Ms. Regina Stocker, also observed the big event.
The municipality's danger zone plan is currently being revised by the Styria North regional construction management for torrent and avalanche control. In addition to avalanches, the numerous torrent catchment areas are also examined. In elementary school, the children learned exactly what a danger zone plan is and how it is created.
The practical exercise was carried out on November 9, 2017 directly at the Schildlehenbach under the supervision of the employees of the WLV regional construction management Styria North. The young experts from the elementary school were able to demonstrate the knowledge they had already learned. Equipped with tools, the children marched with their teachers on foot to Schildlehenbach. First, the stream was dammed with formwork panels and sandbags. After a hearty snack, the little experts built a village with great enthusiasm and effort in the middle of the stream bed and fortified the houses they had brought with them with stone walls, wooden barriers and small forest edges made of spruce brushwood. Diversion dams and retention basins were also built to provide as much protection as possible for the settlement area. The children named their area “Dwarf Village” for which a danger zone plan was then drawn up. On a sketched terrain map, the students drew their houses on the plan and assessed the danger area as red (extreme risk of flooding), yellow (risk of damage) or green (safe location). The children's parents arrived in time for the big flood and watched the event with great interest.
The first surge of water washed out some houses, which immediately tipped over and floated away. In front of the built-in safety fence at the end of the simulation section, the WLV employees fished the houses out of the stream bed. Some houses toppled over, but many parts of the settlement were spared from the flood. The little builders had protected their dwarf village very well. The children then used flags to mark out their houses or the areas in which they were originally set up. The plan matched the actual danger areas quite closely. The little torrent experts wanted to do the whole spectacle again.
The campaign is also part of the INTERREG project “CAMARO-D – Cross-border water and flood protection in the Danube region”. 14 project partners from Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia, among others, have set themselves high goals for sustainable flood protection. An international knowledge platform serves the cross-border exchange of examples, results, further ideas and cooperation opportunities. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management is leading the international project, the HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein is implementing various pilot actions in the Upper Styrian Ennstal together with the torrent and avalanche control department, the state of Styria and many other institutions over the next two years. The focus is on raising awareness for the population and decision-makers as well as exchanging best practice examples.
