This new way of thinking requires a new field of technical challenges such as inland dike reallocation, floating houses, river bypasses near urban areas etc. Additionally, in the modern water management approach public participation and "river basin wide thinking" are important corner stones to realize sustainable flood protection and water use in general. This causes a shift in the role of the technical engineer in the decision making process from "determining and directing" to "supportive and facilitating."

If natural systems such as rivers are over-regulated by engineering works, all kinds of side effects emerge on the short as well as long term which may also cause an increase in flood disasters and water scarcity problems. At present, more efforts are made to modify land use to prevent far-reaching interventions in river basins. This triggers a new series of technical innovations to adapt land use, such as housing, agriculture, and infrastructure, to river dynamics. In applying these new concepts, socio-economic aspects and public participation play an important role.

Floods and near-floods events in Europe during the last decades triggered our research activities. We did not experience obstacles during the research and writing of the manuscript.

There are many social and political implications if the ecosystem-based approach is applied fully to river basins. The new way of thinking about land use and water management may cause a change of livelihoods, influence physical planning, and trigger new technical and non-technical innovations in land use and water management measures and transboundary cooperation within river basins.