Riverbank erosion
When riverbanks erode, the material of natural or artificial banks is degraded. When the force of moving water exceeds the resistance of soil and vegetation, bank erosion occurs.
Riverbank erosion can have a variety of causes, such as new infrastructure or agriculture (without sufficient buffer zones), navigation or other activities (such as canoeing, watering points for livestock, etc.).
Risks and causes
Consequences
What can you do?
There are no specific recommendations for this risk.
Check out our general advice to follow before, during, and after an emergency.
Impact and probability
The figures relating to probability and impact describe large-scale riverbank erosion. The BNRA theoretically describes such a scenario as follows:
- The riverbanks are damaged by erosion at an average speed, over a few kilometres.
- In some places, this erosion occurs (very) close to urban and densely populated areas, where there are a lot of people.
How should you interpret these results?
Within the BNRA, experts assessed three scenarios for each risk: considerable, major or extreme. On each page, you will find the results of the scenario with the highest score based on the combination of likelihood and impact. This does not mean that this scenario will occur or is the most likely. Read more here about how to correctly interpret the results.
Probability
Strong
Human impact
Very weak
Societal impact
Weak
Environmental impact
No impact
Financial impact
Weak
What do the authorities do?
Monitoring the impact of human activities and nature on our rivers is the responsibility of:
- Hydraulic laboratory (Flanders)
- Flanders Environment Agency (Flanders)
- Brussels Environment (Brussels)
- WPS Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment (Wallonia)
- Watercourse management (Wallonia)