Wine and Climate Change: What Next for the Flooded Ahr Valley in Germany? Vineyard Terracing, Reorienting Vineyard Rows and Reforestation Under Consideration

If local climate change mitigation experts have their say, vineyards in the Ahr Valley, planted on steep hillsides, may no longer want to keep their row orientation facing downward in long rows that send water rushing down to the river and towns below, says Professor Lothar Schrott, a geography professor at the University of Bonn who heads the university's disaster management program. 

Instead, vineyard owners may consider terracing the steep hillsides. 

Forests composed of a high number of spruce trees and a low number of deciduous trees also pose a risk in the region, says Schrott. 

"Decidous trees retain more water," Schrott says in the new, online, 30 minute documentary, Extreme Weather, Rising Sea Levels and Devastating Floods: The Global Climate Crisis, on Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany's public television network. 

(His comments on this topic begin at 24:24 in the program.) 

According to the documentary, it can take 100 years to transition to a more balanced, mixed forest.

The German government has devoted $30 billion for disaster recovery in the Ahr Valley, which was devastated by severe flooding July 14, damaging more than 46 wineries in the region. Eighty percent of the wineries grow Pinot Noir, which is called Spatburgunder, on the chilly, slate slopes here.

Schrott's assessment is that many mistakes were made in the region. He says preventive measures would have been more cost effective than dealing with the disruption and damage of the flood. 

More than 160 people died in the flood.

In a story familiar to California's growers, insurance companies have agreed to pay only a portion of the damages, so winemakers in the local coop reached out for help and hundreds of volunteers came to their aid to help clean out warehouses and preserve wine that could be rescued. 

See DW's coverage of winery relief efforts Good Samaritan Come to the Rescue for more on that story.

Climate change expert Dr. Kira Vine, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, is also featured in the documentary, which also covers the impacts of climate change flooding in Bangladesh and Mozambique. 

Though Germany provided more than 4 billion Euros to Mozambique for climate mitigation, climate change experts there and in Bangladesh criticize developed countries for not providing more funding to deal with relocation and mitigation efforts, saying the funds Germany gave to Mozambique were 1/8th of the amount Germany gave to the Ahr Valley.