Keeping a river in its bed has its limits: protective walls can be flooded, and dikes can break. And then what? You make room for the water. In technical terms, this is called a retention area, and the Bodenheim/Laubenheim polder is a good example of this.

A dike protects the banks of the Rhine over a length of more than four kilometers—until the water level exceeds seven meters. Then, flood gates designed for this purpose are opened and part of the water is "diverted" to a designated open area. In this way, over 6.5 billion liters can be removed from the Rhine, reducing the pressure on the dike accordingly.

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