Europe's future is likely to include increasingly intense floods due to climate change, highlighting the need for adaptation measures as more people move to flood-prone areas, dpa quoted the EU's environmental agency as saying Wednesday. The report came as flooding submerged large areas of Central Europe and Germany. Measures that have been used to reduce the effects of flooding in some European countries included giving rivers more room to overflow by relocating dykes, the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency said. Other measures to counter the effects of flooding included building higher flood defences or allowing reclaimed land to be resubmerged. Rising temperatures in Europe were likely to intensify the water cycle, leading to more frequent and intense floods in many regions, it said. About one in five European cities with more than 100,000 people were vulnerable to river floods, the agency estimated. The risks were partly attributed to large sealed areas covered by buildings, concrete or asphalt, preventing water from quickly draining into the ground or sewage systems. "Considering flood risk in Europe, we can see climate change will be an increasingly important factor. But in many cases, flood risk is also the result of where, and how, we choose to live," chief executive Hans Bruyninckx said.
