Investment passes test and prevents flooding

Many regions of Swabia have been flooded in recent days. Memmingen Airport, however, was able to survive the heavy rainfall unscathed, maintain its flight operations and also prevent flooding in the neighbouring community of Ungerhausen. The investment in a large rainwater retention basin is responsible for this.

This investment has paid off: the rainwater retention basin built in 2022 prevented dangerous flooding of the nearby Schmidbach stream, the neighbouring municipality of Ungerhausen and ultimately the airport site in the vicinity of Memmingen Airport. “This infrastructure facility has proven to be indispensable for flood protection,” emphasises Ralf Schmid, Managing Director of Memmingen Airport. “We are relieved that the rainwater retention basin has fulfilled its purpose and contributed to the safety of our community,” adds Josef Fickler, Mayor of Ungerhausen.

During heavy rainfall, the rainwater retention basin collects the water that collects on the built-up areas of the airport site. As in a temporary storage facility, it deposits the water and later releases it in a controlled manner to seep away. In this way, it ensures that only the amount of water from the airport that it can cope with flows into the Schmidbach.
With a volume of around 12,000 cubic metres, which corresponds to almost 80,000 bathtub fillings, the 75 metre wide, 170 metre long and 5.50 metre deep basin has sufficient capacity for large quantities of water. Two channels lead from the airport grounds into the rainwater retention basin.