Surface water maintenance

Watercourse maintenance refers to the regularly recurring maintenance of developed and undeveloped watercourses. The type, scope and frequency of maintenance measures vary depending on the size, importance and use of a watercourse and the type of catchment area. There are numerous ways of improving the ecological status of watercourses in the long term and achieving ecological objectives through watercourse maintenance. The protection of the receiving water and discharge conditions must be taken into account.

In the city of Aachen, water maintenance for the catchment areas of the Inde and Wurm rivers is carried out by the Eifel-Rur water board based in Düren as an obligation under public law.

The water maintenance department of the Lower Water Authority of the City of Aachen is responsible for the water maintenance of the catchment areas of the Tüljebach and the Senserbach. As the federal border with the Netherlands runs through the middle of the Senserbach, the water maintenance department of the Lower Water Authority of the City of Aachen has agreed with the Watershap Roer en Overmaas that the water maintenance from the Grenzstraat to Lemiers will be carried out by the City of Aachen and from Lemiers onwards by the Watershap Roer en Overmaas. This is intended to maintain a uniform appearance of the watercourse.

The Lower Water Authority of the City of Aachen is responsible for the supervision of watercourse maintenance under water law.

Legal basis

The basic objectives of watercourse maintenance are set out in Section 39 of the Federal Water Act (WHG) and Sections 61 and 62 of the State Water Act (LWG). Accordingly, maintenance includes the preservation of a proper condition of the watercourse bed and banks for water runoff, whereby the favorable effects of the watercourse on the ecosystem and the water landscape are to be preserved and developed. This includes

• the preservation of the watercourse bed, also to ensure proper water drainage,
• the preservation of the banks, in particular by maintaining and replanting site-appropriate riparian vegetation, and keeping the banks free for water runoff,
• the preservation and promotion of the ecological functionality of the watercourse, in particular as a habitat for wild animals and plants,
• the maintenance of the watercourse in a condition that meets water management requirements in terms of the discharge or retention of water, bedload, suspended matter and ice:

Competent authority: