The national kick-off in Germany was held on the 14th of January 2019 at the floodplain institute of the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt located directly at the Danube River. All in all, 40 people from water management and nature conservation authorities, different NGOs as well as from the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, TU Munich and representatives from the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection attended the event. Main scope was to inform stakeholders from authorities and NGOs about the ongoing activities of the Danube Floodplain Project.

The meeting started with introductory presentations on the project structure and ongoing work on hydraulic modeling, ecosystem service assessment, habitat modeling and cost-benefit-analysis of flood protection and floodplain restoration measures. Additionally, best practice examples from the Elbe River in Germany gave ideas how synergies of flood protection and floodplain development with an increase in habitat quality and ecosystem services could look like.

In the second part of the national kick-off, a workshop offered the opportunity for the participants to get involved and discuss on flood protection, floodplain restoration, ecosystem services, cost-benefit-analysis and stakeholder engagement in floodplain related projects. There have been intensive and fruitful discussions with the various stakeholders from authorities, NGOs and universities resulting in interesting insights for all participants.

Despite the fact that there is no pilot area in Germany, the project gained high interest in the stakeholder groups attending the national kick-off. The event has been a great opportunity to communicate the Danube Floodplain project to them and exchanging manifold ideas and experiences in order to foster synergies between flood protection and floodplain restoration along the entire Danube River and its tributaries.