Back to the Vesdre: our maps show areas that cannot but will flood

One year after the flood disaster in the Vesdre valley, which claimed 39 lives and plunged tens of thousands of Walloons into misery, De Standaard obtained maps from the Walloon administration showing the exact flooded areas. Placing that data alongside the official risk maps was revealing: the gap was enormous.

For three severely affected municipalities (Limbourg, Trooz and Verviers) we built scrollytelling maps that step by step layer the risk zoning alongside the actually flooded areas. Scrolling reveals first the risk layers, then the actual flood contours.