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European logistics network under pressure: Supply chain resilience lessons from the Rhine River drought

Rhine River drought exposes supply chain resilience gaps across Europe, showing why integrated logistics planning is critical amid climate and transport disruption.

16/09/2026 · 3 minute read

Europe’s supply chains are not a set of separate functions. They are connected systems. When one part is disrupted, the impact does not remain contained — it ripples through the wider network. The drought on the Rhine exemplifies how a physical constraint can quickly become an operational and commercial issue across the supply chain.

What makes this particularly important is the convergence of pressures: low water levels on key waterways, tighter regulatory expectations, and modal shifts as companies seek alternatives to keep freight moving. The message is clear: resilience cannot be managed in silos when the underlying system is a single, interconnected network.

When green goals meet dry rivers

Low water levels on the Rhine have made the trade-offs more apparent. As barge capacity declines, cargo has been diverted to roads and rail, which can raise costs, increase congestion, and make emissions targets harder to meet. Transport by road or rail produces far higher emissions than waterway transport: inland waterways use about 160 kJ/tkm, compared with 209 for rail and 2,426 for road.

German rail operators are increasing capacity to absorb the lost inland-waterway volume. That does not remove the underlying constraint, but it does show how quickly the transport system can adapt when water levels fall.

At the same time, infrastructure managers are preparing for more extreme low-water scenarios. At the Terneuzen lock in the Netherlands, for example, contingency measures include pumps that can be deployed if water levels reach a critical point. That is a reminder that resilience now depends not only on commercial planning but also on operational readiness in critical infrastructure.

Resilience under increasing pressure

As climate-related disruption becomes more frequent, regulatory and compliance demands continue to rise. For companies with complex European networks, these pressures do not arrive one by one — they accumulate. The result is a growing burden on supply chain teams that must manage service levels, compliance, capacity, and cost simultaneously.

That is why the low-water situation matters beyond transport. It reflects a wider pattern in which environmental constraints, infrastructure limitations, and policy expectations all intersect. Companies that treat these as separate issues risk underestimating the scale of the challenge.

Why silos break under stress

Traditional supply chain management often divides responsibility across functions: transport, procurement, compliance, operations, and sustainability. But when the Rhine is under stress, or when rail and lock operators need to step in to absorb disruption, those boundaries become less useful. The real system is connected, and the response must be connected as well.

The increase in rail capacity and the contingency measures at Terneuzen are both examples of ecosystem behaviour in action. They show that a single function or partner does not own resilience; it is created through coordination across the network.

Building resilience by design

For leaders, this underscores a strategic consideration. Resilience planning needs to shift from reactive mitigation to proactive ecosystem design. That means building transport optionality, strengthening partner coordination, and investing in operating models and infrastructure that can adapt when one mode becomes constrained.

Organisations that understand these interdependencies will be better placed to adapt. Those who continue to manage transport, compliance, and sustainability as separate agendas will find it harder to respond to the next disruption.

The final perspective

Europe is entering a new phase of risk, where extreme heat is only one part of a much broader picture. Across the continent, organisations are increasingly facing a convergence of climate-related and operational threats, including floods, droughts, severe storms, wildfires, earthquakes, and other natural hazards. These events are no longer isolated disruptions. They are compounding pressures that can affect infrastructure, labour availability, supply chains, and business continuity simultaneously.

The organisations best positioned to navigate this environment will be those that take an integrated view of risk — one that connects facilities, people, logistics, and policy response. The lesson is not simply that Europe must prepare for more frequent shocks, but that adaptation requires coordination across the full ecosystem.

To strengthen your supply chain resilience, please contact your Marsh representative.

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