TY - JOUR A1 - Bubeck, Philip A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - What helps people recover from floods? BT - insights from a survey among flood-affected residents in German JF - Regional environmental change N2 - The number of people exposed to natural hazards has grown steadily over recent decades, mainly due to increasing exposure in hazard-prone areas. In the future, climate change could further enhance this trend. Still, empirical and comprehensive insights into individual recovery from natural hazards are largely lacking, hampering efforts to increase societal resilience. Drawing from a sample of 710 residents affected by flooding across Germany in June 2013, we empirically explore a wide range of variables possibly influencing self-reported recovery, including flood-event characteristics, the circumstances of the recovery process, socio-economic characteristics, and psychological factors, using multivariate statistics. We found that the amount of damage and other flood-event characteristics such as inundation depth are less important than socio-economic characteristics (e.g., sex or health status) and psychological factors (e.g., risk aversion and emotions). Our results indicate that uniform recovery efforts focusing on areas that were the most affected in terms of physical damage are insufficient to account for the heterogeneity in individual recovery results. To increase societal resilience, aid and recovery efforts should better address the long-term psychological effects of floods. KW - Floods KW - Resilience KW - Recovery KW - Natural hazards KW - Climate change KW - Adaptation Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1200-y SN - 1436-3798 SN - 1436-378X VL - 18 IS - 1 SP - 287 EP - 296 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bubeck, Philip A1 - Berghäuser, Lisa A1 - Hudson, Paul A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - Using panel data to understand the dynamics of human behavior in response to flooding JF - Risk analysis : an international journal N2 - Insights into the dynamics of human behavior in response to flooding are urgently needed for the development of effective integrated flood risk management strategies, and for integrating human behavior in flood risk modeling. However, our understanding of the dynamics of risk perceptions, attitudes, individual recovery processes, as well as adaptive (i.e., risk reducing) intention and behavior are currently limited because of the predominant use of cross-sectional surveys in the flood risk domain. Here, we present the results from one of the first panel surveys in the flood risk domain covering a relatively long period of time (i.e., four years after a damaging event), three survey waves, and a wide range of topics relevant to the role of citizens in integrated flood risk management. The panel data, consisting of 227 individuals affected by the 2013 flood in Germany, were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and latent class growth analysis (LCGA) to utilize the unique temporal dimension of the data set. Results show that attitudes, such as the respondents' perceived responsibility within flood risk management, remain fairly stable over time. Changes are observed partly for risk perceptions and mainly for individual recovery and intentions to undertake risk-reducing measures. LCGA reveal heterogeneous recovery and adaptation trajectories that need to be taken into account in policies supporting individual recovery and stimulating societal preparedness. More panel studies in the flood risk domain are needed to gain better insights into the dynamics of individual recovery, risk-reducing behavior, and associated risk and protective factors. KW - adaptation behavior KW - floods KW - individual recovery KW - LCGA KW - panel data Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13548 SN - 0272-4332 SN - 1539-6924 VL - 40 IS - 11 SP - 2340 EP - 2359 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kox, Thomas A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - To act or not to act? Factors influencing the general public's decision about Whether to Take Protective Action against Severe Weather JF - Weather, climate & society N2 - Research suggests that providing weather forecast end users with additional information about the forecast uncertainty of a possible event can enhance the preparation of mitigation measures. But not all users have the same threshold for taking action. This paper focuses on the question of whether there are influencing factors that determine decision thresholds for numerical weather forecast information beginning at which the general public would start to take protective action. In spring 2014, 1342 residents of Berlin, Germany participated in a survey. Questions related to the following topics: perception of and prior experience with severe weather, trustworthiness of forecasters and confidence in weather forecasts, and sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Within the questionnaire a scenario was created in order to determine individual decision thresholds and see whether subgroups of the sample lead to different thresholds. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-15-0078.1 SN - 1948-8327 SN - 1948-8335 VL - 9 SP - 299 EP - 315 PB - American Meteorological Soc. CY - Boston ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koc, Gamze A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - The relevance of flood hazards and impacts in Turkey BT - what can be learned from different disaster loss databases? JF - Natural hazards : journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards N2 - Turkey has been severely affected by many natural hazards, in particular earthquakes and floods. Especially over the last two decades, these natural hazards have caused enormous human and economic damage. Although there is a large body of literature on earthquake hazards and risks in Turkey, comparatively little is known about flood hazards and risks. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the severity of flooding in comparison with other natural hazards in Turkey and to analyse the flood patterns by providing an overview of the temporal and spatial distribution of flood losses. These will act as a metric for the societal and economic impacts of flood hazards in Turkey. For this purpose, Turkey Disaster Database (TABB) was used for the years 1960-2014. As input for more detailed event analyses, the most severe flood events in Turkey for the same time interval will also be retrieved. Sufficiency of the TABB database to achieve the main aim of the study in terms of data quality and accuracy was also discussed. The TABB database was analysed and reviewed through comparison, mainly with the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), the Global Active Archive of Large Flood Events-Dartmouth Flood Observatory database, news archives and the scientific literature, with a focus on listing the most severe flood event. The comparative review of these data sources reveals big mismatches in the flood data, i.e. the reported number of events, number of affected people and economic loss all differ dramatically. Owing to the fact that the TABB is the only disaster loss database for Turkey, it is important to explore the reasons for the mismatches between TABB and the other sources with regard to aspects of accuracy and data quality. Therefore, biases and fallacies in the TABB loss data are also discussed. The comparative TABB database analyses show that large mismatches between global and national databases can occur. Current global and national databases for monitoring losses from national hazards suffer from a number of limitations, which in turn could lead to misinterpretations of the loss data. Since loss data collection is gaining more and more attention, e.g. in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, this study offers a framework for developing guidelines for the Turkey Disaster Database (TABB), implications on how to standardize national loss databases and implement across the other hazard events in Turkey. KW - Historic natural hazards KW - Floods KW - Disaster loss databases KW - Flood impacts KW - Turkey Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3134-6 SN - 0921-030X SN - 1573-0840 VL - 91 IS - 1 SP - 375 EP - 408 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfurtscheller, Clemens A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - The price of safety costs for mitigating and coping with Alpine hazards JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - Due to limited public budgets and the need to economize, the analysis of costs of hazard mitigation and emergency management of natural hazards becomes increasingly important for public natural hazard and risk management. In recent years there has been a growing body of literature on the estimation of losses which supported to help to determine benefits of measures in terms of prevented losses. On the contrary, the costs of mitigation are hardly addressed. This paper thus aims to shed some light on expenses for mitigation and emergency services. For this, we analysed the annual costs of mitigation efforts in four regions/countries of the Alpine Arc: Bavaria (Germany), Tyrol (Austria), South Tyrol (Italy) and Switzerland. On the basis of PPP values (purchasing power parities), annual expenses on public safety ranged from EUR 44 per capita in the Free State of Bavaria to EUR 216 in the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol. To analyse the (variable) costs for emergency services in case of an event, we used detailed data from the 2005 floods in the Federal State of Tyrol (Austria) as well as aggregated data from the 2002 floods in Germany. The analysis revealed that multi-hazards, the occurrence and intermixture of different natural hazard processes, contribute to increasing emergency costs. Based on these findings, research gaps and recommendations for costing Alpine natural hazards are discussed. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-13-2619-2013 SN - 1561-8633 VL - 13 IS - 10 SP - 2619 EP - 2637 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hudson, Paul A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - The presence of moral hazard regarding flood insurance and German private businesses JF - Natural hazards : journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards N2 - There is a movement towards the concepts of integrated flood risk management and governance. In these concepts, each stakeholder prone to flooding is tasked with actively limiting flood impacts. Currently, relatively more research has focused upon the adaptation of private households and not on private businesses operating in flood-prone areas. This paper offers an extension of this literature on business-level flood adaptation by exploring the potential presence of moral hazard. The analyses are based on survey data collected in the aftermath of six floods across Germany between 2002 and 2013 to provide a first indication of the presence of moral hazard in private businesses. Moral hazard is where increased insurance coverage results in policyholders preparing less, increasing the risk they face, a counterproductive outcome. We present an initial study of moral hazard occurring through three channels: the performance of emergency measures during a flood, changes in precautionary behavior employed before a given flood occurred, and changes in the intention to employ additional precautionary measures after a flood. We find, much like for private households, no strong indication that moral hazard is present regarding past adaptation. However, there is a potential avenue after 2005 for insurance coverage to lower businesses' intentions to employ more adaptation measures after a flood. This has significant policy relevance such as opportunities for strengthening the link between insurance and risk reduction measures and boosting insurance coverage against flooding in general. KW - Flooding KW - Risk reduction KW - Private businesses KW - Insurance KW - Moral hazard KW - Company Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05227-9 SN - 0921-030X SN - 1573-0840 VL - 112 IS - 2 SP - 1295 EP - 1319 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht [u.a.] ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kellermann, Patric A1 - Schröter, Kai A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Haubrock, Sören-Nils A1 - Kreibich, Heidi T1 - The object-specific flood damage database HOWAS 21 JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - The Flood Damage Database HOWAS 21 contains object-specific flood damage data resulting from fluvial, pluvial and groundwater flooding. The datasets incorporate various variables of flood hazard, exposure, vulnerability and direct tangible damage at properties from several economic sectors. The main purpose of development of HOWAS 21 was to support forensic flood analysis and the derivation of flood damage models. HOWAS 21 was first developed for Germany and currently almost exclusively contains datasets from Germany. However, its scope has recently been enlarged with the aim to serve as an international flood damage database; e.g. its web application is now available in German and English. This paper presents the recent advancements of HOWAS 21 and highlights exemplary analyses to demonstrate the use of HOWAS 21 flood damage data. The data applications indicate a large potential of the database for fostering a better understanding and estimation of the consequences of flooding. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2503-2020 SN - 1561-8633 SN - 1684-9981 VL - 20 IS - 9 SP - 2503 EP - 2519 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Bessel, Tina A1 - Kienzler, Sarah A1 - Kreibich, Heidi A1 - Mueller, Meike A1 - Pisi, Sebastian A1 - Schroeter, Kai T1 - The flood of June 2013 in Germany: how much do we know about its impacts? JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - In June 2013, widespread flooding and consequent damage and losses occurred in Central Europe, especially in Germany. This paper explores what data are available to investigate the adverse impacts of the event, what kind of information can be retrieved from these data and how well data and information fulfil requirements that were recently proposed for disaster reporting on the European and international levels. In accordance with the European Floods Directive (2007/60/EC), impacts on human health, economic activities (and assets), cultural heritage and the environment are described on the national and sub-national scale. Information from governmental reports is complemented by communications on traffic disruptions and surveys of flood-affected residents and companies. Overall, the impacts of the flood event in 2013 were manifold. The study reveals that flood-affected residents suffered from a large range of impacts, among which mental health and supply problems were perceived more seriously than financial losses. The most frequent damage type among affected companies was business interruption. This demonstrates that the current scientific focus on direct (financial) damage is insufficient to describe the overall impacts and severity of flood events. The case further demonstrates that procedures and standards for impact data collection in Germany are widely missing. Present impact data in Germany are fragmentary, heterogeneous, incomplete and difficult to access. In order to fulfil, for example, the monitoring and reporting requirements of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 that was adopted in March 2015 in Sendai, Japan, more efforts on impact data collection are needed. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-1519-2016 SN - 1561-8633 VL - 16 SP - 1519 EP - 1540 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Bessel, Tina A1 - Kienzler, Sarah A1 - Kreibich, Heidi A1 - Müller, Meike A1 - Pisi, Sebastian A1 - Schröter, Kai T1 - The flood of June 2013 in Germany BT - how much do we know about its impacts? JF - National Hazards Earth System Science N2 - In June 2013, widespread flooding and consequent damage and losses occurred in Central Europe, especially in Germany. This paper explores what data are available to investigate the adverse impacts of the event, what kind of information can be retrieved from these data and how well data and information fulfil requirements that were recently proposed for disaster reporting on the European and international levels. In accordance with the European Floods Directive (2007/60/EC), impacts on human health, economic activities (and assets), cultural heritage and the environment are described on the national and sub-national scale. Information from governmental reports is complemented by communications on traffic disruptions and surveys of flood-affected residents and companies. Overall, the impacts of the flood event in 2013 were manifold. The study reveals that flood-affected residents suffered from a large range of impacts, among which mental health and supply problems were perceived more seriously than financial losses. The most frequent damage type among affected companies was business interruption. This demonstrates that the current scientific focus on direct (financial) damage is insufficient to describe the overall impacts and severity of flood events. The case further demonstrates that procedures and standards for impact data collection in Germany are widely missing. Present impact data in Germany are fragmentary, heterogeneous, incomplete and difficult to access. In order to fulfil, for example, the monitoring and reporting requirements of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 that was adopted in March 2015 in Sendai, Japan, more efforts on impact data collection are needed. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-1519-2016 IS - 16 SP - 1519 EP - 1540 PB - Copernicus Publications CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bouwer, Laurens M. A1 - Papyrakis, Elissaios A1 - Poussin, Jennifer A1 - Pfurtscheller, Clemens A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - The costing of measures for natural hazard mitigation in Europe JF - Natural hazards review N2 - The literature on the costing of mitigation measures for reducing impacts of natural hazards is rather fragmented. This paper provides a concise overview of the current state of knowledge in Europe on the costing of mitigation measures for the reduction of natural hazard risks (droughts, floods, storms and induced coastal hazards as well as alpine hazards) and identifies knowledge gaps and related research recommendations. Furthermore, it provides a taxonomy of related mitigation options, classifying them into nine categories: (1) management plans, land-use planning, and climate adaptation; (2) hazard modification; (3) infrastructure; (4) mitigation measures (stricto sensu); (5) communication in advance of events; (6) monitoring and early warning systems; (7) emergency response and evacuation; (8) financial incentives; and (9) risk transfer (including insurance). It is found that the costing of mitigation measures in European and in other countries has almost exclusively focused on estimating direct costs. A cost assessment framework that addresses a range of costs, possibly informed by multiple stakeholders, would provide more accurate estimates and could provide better guidance to decision makers. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers. KW - Natural hazards KW - Mitigation KW - Costs KW - Adaptation KW - Risk reduction KW - Floods KW - Droughts KW - Coastal hazards KW - Alpine hazards Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000133 SN - 1527-6988 SN - 1527-6996 VL - 15 IS - 4 PB - American Society of Civil Engineers CY - Reston ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kuhlicke, Christian A1 - Seebauer, Sebastian A1 - Hudson, Paul A1 - Begg, Chloe A1 - Bubeck, Philip A1 - Dittmer, Cordula A1 - Grothmann, Torsten A1 - Heidenreich, Anna A1 - Kreibich, Heidi A1 - Lorenz, Daniel F. A1 - Masson, Torsten A1 - Reiter, Jessica A1 - Thaler, Thomas A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Bamberg, Sebastian T1 - The behavioral turn in flood risk management, its assumptions and potential implications JF - WIREs Water N2 - Recent policy changes highlight the need for citizens to take adaptive actions to reduce flood-related impacts. Here, we argue that these changes represent a wider behavioral turn in flood risk management (FRM). The behavioral turn is based on three fundamental assumptions: first, that the motivations of citizens to take adaptive actions can be well understood so that these motivations can be targeted in the practice of FRM; second, that private adaptive measures and actions are effective in reducing flood risk; and third, that individuals have the capacities to implement such measures. We assess the extent to which the assumptions can be supported by empirical evidence. We do this by engaging with three intellectual catchments. We turn to research by psychologists and other behavioral scientists which focus on the sociopsychological factors which influence individual motivations (Assumption 1). We engage with economists, engineers, and quantitative risk analysts who explore the extent to which individuals can reduce flood related impacts by quantifying the effectiveness and efficiency of household-level adaptive measures (Assumption 2). We converse with human geographers and sociologists who explore the types of capacities households require to adapt to and cope with threatening events (Assumption 3). We believe that an investigation of the behavioral turn is important because if the outlined assumptions do not hold, there is a risk of creating and strengthening inequalities in FRM. Therefore, we outline the current intellectual and empirical knowledge as well as future research needs. Generally, we argue that more collaboration across intellectual catchments is needed, that future research should be more theoretically grounded and become methodologically more rigorous and at the same time focus more explicitly on the normative underpinnings of the behavioral turn. KW - capacities KW - effectiveness KW - motivation KW - resources KW - risk governance KW - vulnerability Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1418 SN - 2049-1948 VL - 7 IS - 3 SP - 1 EP - 22 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Riese, Miriam A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Müggenburg, Eva A1 - Bubeck, Philip T1 - Synergies and barriers of the possible integration of heavy rainfall for the implementation of the European Floods Directive JF - Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung N2 - The heavy rainfall events in recent years have caused great damage, which has increased the public awareness of the topic of heavy rainfall. For this reason, this article discusses how a systematic integration of heavy rainfall within the framework of the European Floods Directive would be possible and reasonable. For this purpose, a matrix covering possible synergies and barriers was created for all steps of the directive, which were then examined in 15 semi-structured interviews with representatives from specialized administration, the private sector and academia. Although there are some synergies, the additional effort required, especially regarding the identification of the risk areas and the higher level of detail required for risk modeling, would be so high that the European Floods Directive cannot be deemed to be an appropriate framework for heavy rainfall risk management. Nevertheless, there is a need for action, e.g. in the field of self-protection, improved risk communication to the population, combined with increased public and interagency cooperation. T2 - Synergien und Hemmnisse einer möglichen Integration von Starkregen in die Bearbeitung der europäischen Hochwasserrisikomanagementrichtlinie KW - Flood KW - heavy rainfall KW - EU Floods Directive KW - Federal Water Act KW - Hochwasser KW - Starkregen KW - Hochwasserrisikomanagementrichtlinie KW - Wasserhaushaltsgesetz Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5675/HyWa_2019.4_1 SN - 1439-1783 VL - 63 IS - 4 SP - 193 EP - 202 PB - Bundesanst. für Gewässerkunde CY - Koblenz ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cammerer, Holger A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Verburg, Peter H. T1 - Spatio-temporal dynamics in the flood exposure due to land use changes in the Alpine Lech Valley in Tyrol (Austria) JF - Natural hazards : journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards N2 - Flood risk is expected to increase in many regions of the world in the next decades with rising flood losses as a consequence. First and foremost, it can be attributed to the expansion of settlement and industrial areas into flood plains and the resulting accumulation of assets. For a future-oriented and a more robust flood risk management, it is therefore of importance not only to estimate potential impacts of climate change on the flood hazard, but also to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of flood exposure due to land use changes. In this study, carried out in the Alpine Lech Valley in Tyrol (Austria), various land use scenarios until 2030 were developed by means of a spatially explicit land use model, national spatial planning scenarios and current spatial policies. The combination of the simulated land use patterns with different inundation scenarios enabled us to derive statements about possible future changes in flood-exposed built-up areas. The results indicate that the potential assets at risk depend very much on the selected socioeconomic scenario. The important conditions affecting the potential assets at risk that differ between the scenarios are the demand for new built-up areas as well as on the types of conversions allowed to provide the necessary areas at certain locations. The range of potential changes in flood-exposed residential areas varies from no further change in the most moderate scenario 'Overall Risk' to 119 % increase in the most extreme scenario 'Overall Growth' (under current spatial policy) and 159 % increase when disregarding current building restrictions. KW - Flood risk KW - Land use change KW - Spatial policy KW - Socioeconomic scenarios KW - Mountain basins Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0280-8 SN - 0921-030X VL - 68 IS - 3 SP - 1243 EP - 1270 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jehmlich, Caroline A1 - Hudson, Paul A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - Short contribution on adaptive behaviour of flood-prone companies BT - a pilot study of Dresden-Laubegast, Germany JF - Journal of Flood Risk Management N2 - Integrated flood management strategies consider property-level precautionary measures as a vital part. Whereas this is a well-researched topic for residents, little is known about the adaptive behaviour of flood-prone companies although they often settle on the ground floor of buildings and are thus among the first affected by flooding. This pilot study analyses flood responses of 64 businesses in a district of the city of Dresden, Germany that experienced major flooding in 2002 and 2013. Using standardised survey data and accompanying qualitative interviews, the analyses revealed that the largest driver of adaptive behaviour is experiencing flood events. Intangible factors such as tradition and a sense of community play a role for the decision to stay in the area, while lacking ownership might hamper property-level adaptation. Further research is also needed to understand the role of insurance and governmental aid for recovery and adaptation of businesses. KW - adaptation KW - disaster risk reduction KW - integrated flood risk management KW - risk perception Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12653 SN - 1753-318X VL - 13 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hudson, Paul A1 - Pham, My A1 - Hagedoorn, Liselotte A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Lasage, Ralph A1 - Bubeck, Philip T1 - Self-stated recovery from flooding BT - empirical results from a survey in Central Vietnam JF - Journal of Flood Risk Management N2 - Social inequalities lead to flood resilience inequalities across social groups, a topic that requires improved documentation and understanding. The objective of this paper is to attend to these differences by investigating self-stated flood recovery across genders in Vietnam as a conceptual replication of earlier results from Germany. This study employs a regression-based analysis of 1,010 respondents divided between a rural coastal and an urban community in Thua Thien-Hue province. The results highlight an important set of recovery process-related variables. The set of relevant variables is similar across genders in terms of inclusion and influence, and includes age, social capital, internal and external support after a flood, perceived severity of previous flood impacts, and the perception of stress-resilience. However, women were affected more heavily by flooding in terms of longer recovery times, which should be accounted for in risk management. Overall, the studied variables perform similarly in Vietnam and Germany. This study, therefore, conceptually replicates previous results suggesting that women display slightly slower recovery levels as well as that psychological variables influence recovery rates more than adverse flood impacts. This provides an indication of the results' potentially robust nature due to the different socio-environmental contexts in Germany and Vietnam. KW - flood recovery KW - resilience KW - societal equity KW - vulnerability Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12680 SN - 1753-318X VL - 14 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Otto, Antje A1 - Kellermann, Patric A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Costa, Maria Manez A1 - Carmona, Maria A1 - Bubeck, Philip T1 - Risk reduction partnerships in railway transport infrastructure in an alpine environment JF - International journal of disaster risk reduction N2 - The transport sector is crucial for the functioning of modern societies and their economic welfares. However, it is vulnerable to natural hazards since damage and disturbances appear recurrently. Risk management of transport infrastructure is a complex task that usually involves various stakeholders from the public and private sector. Related scientific knowledge, however, is limited so far. Therefore, this paper presents detailed information on the risk management of the Austrian railway operator gathered through literature studies, in interviews, meetings and workshops. The findings reveal three decision making levels of risk reduction: 1) a superordinate level for the negotiation of frameworks and guidelines, 2) a regional to local level for the planning and implementation of structural measures and 3) a regional to local level for non-structural risk reduction measures and emergency management. On each of these levels, multi-sectoral partnerships exist that aim at reducing the risk to railway infrastructure. Chosen partnerships are evaluated applying the Capital Approach Framework and some collaborations are analyzed considering the flood and landslide events in June 2013. The evaluation reveals that the risk management of the railway operator and its partners has been successful, but there is still potential for enhancement. Difficulties are seen for instance in obtaining continuity of employees and organizational structures which can affect personal contacts and mutual trust and might hamper sharing data and experiences. Altogether, the case reveals the importance of multi-sectoral partnerships that are seen as a crucial element of risk management in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. KW - Risk governance KW - Risk reduction partnerships KW - Transport sector KW - Capital Approach Framework (CAF) KW - Austria Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.10.025 SN - 2212-4209 VL - 33 SP - 385 EP - 397 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Kienzler, Sarah A1 - Kreibich, Heidi A1 - Kuhlicke, Christian A1 - Kunz, Michael A1 - Mühr, Bernhard A1 - Müller, Meike A1 - Otto, Antje A1 - Petrow, Theresia A1 - Pisi, Sebastian A1 - Schröter, Kai T1 - Review of the flood risk management system in Germany after the major flood in 2013 JF - Ecology and society : E&S ; a journal of integrative science for resilience and sustainability N2 - Widespread flooding in June 2013 caused damage costs of €6 to 8 billion in Germany, and awoke many memories of the floods in August 2002, which resulted in total damage of €11.6 billion and hence was the most expensive natural hazard event in Germany up to now. The event of 2002 does, however, also mark a reorientation toward an integrated flood risk management system in Germany. Therefore, the flood of 2013 offered the opportunity to review how the measures that politics, administration, and civil society have implemented since 2002 helped to cope with the flood and what still needs to be done to achieve effective and more integrated flood risk management. The review highlights considerable improvements on many levels, in particular (1) an increased consideration of flood hazards in spatial planning and urban development, (2) comprehensive property-level mitigation and preparedness measures, (3) more effective flood warnings and improved coordination of disaster response, and (4) a more targeted maintenance of flood defense systems. In 2013, this led to more effective flood management and to a reduction of damage. Nevertheless, important aspects remain unclear and need to be clarified. This particularly holds for balanced and coordinated strategies for reducing and overcoming the impacts of flooding in large catchments, cross-border and interdisciplinary cooperation, the role of the general public in the different phases of flood risk management, as well as a transparent risk transfer system. Recurring flood events reveal that flood risk management is a continuous task. Hence, risk drivers, such as climate change, land-use changes, economic developments, or demographic change and the resultant risks must be investigated at regular intervals, and risk reduction strategies and processes must be reassessed as well as adapted and implemented in a dialogue with all stakeholders. KW - August 2002 flood KW - Central Europe KW - Floods Directive KW - governance KW - June 2013 flood KW - risk management cycle Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08547-210251 SN - 1708-3087 SN - 1195-5449 VL - 21 IS - 2 PB - Resilience Alliance CY - Wolfville, NS ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Samprogna Mohor, Guilherme A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Residential flood loss estimated from Bayesian multilevel models JF - Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences N2 - Models for the predictions of monetary losses from floods mainly blend data deemed to represent a single flood type and region. Moreover, these approaches largely ignore indicators of preparedness and how predictors may vary between regions and events, challenging the transferability of flood loss models. We use a flood loss database of 1812 German flood-affected households to explore how Bayesian multilevel models can estimate normalised flood damage stratified by event, region, or flood process type. Multilevel models acknowledge natural groups in the data and allow each group to learn from others. We obtain posterior estimates that differ between flood types, with credibly varying influences of water depth, contamination, duration, implementation of property-level precautionary measures, insurance, and previous flood experience; these influences overlap across most events or regions, however. We infer that the underlying damaging processes of distinct flood types deserve further attention. Each reported flood loss and affected region involved mixed flood types, likely explaining the uncertainty in the coefficients. Our results emphasise the need to consider flood types as an important step towards applying flood loss models elsewhere. We argue that failing to do so may unduly generalise the model and systematically bias loss estimations from empirical data. KW - damage KW - insurance KW - Germany KW - transferability KW - preparedness KW - recovery Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-1599-2021 SN - 2195-9269 VL - 21 SP - 1599 EP - 1614 PB - European Geophysical Society CY - Katlenburg-Lindau ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Otto, Antje A1 - Kern, Kristine A1 - Haupt, Wolfgang A1 - Eckersley, Peter A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - Ranking local climate policy BT - assessing the mitigation and adaptation activities of 104 German cities JF - Climatic change : an interdisciplinary, international journal devoted to the description, causes and implications of climatic change N2 - Climate mitigation and climate adaptation are crucial tasks for urban areas and can involve synergies as well as trade-offs. However, few studies have examined how mitigation and adaptation efforts relate to each other in a large number of differently sized cities, and therefore we know little about whether forerunners in mitigation are also leading in adaptation or if cities tend to focus on just one policy field. This article develops an internationally applicable approach to rank cities on climate policy that incorporates multiple indicators related to (1) local commitments on mitigation and adaptation, (2) urban mitigation and adaptation plans and (3) climate adaptation and mitigation ambitions. We apply this method to rank 104 differently sized German cities and identify six clusters: climate policy leaders, climate adaptation leaders, climate mitigation leaders, climate policy followers, climate policy latecomers and climate policy laggards. The article seeks explanations for particular cities' positions and shows that coping with climate change in a balanced way on a high level depends on structural factors, in particular city size, the pathways of local climate policies since the 1990s and funding programmes for both climate mitigation and adaptation. N2 - Klimaschutz und Klimaanpassung sind zentrale Aufgaben für Städte und können sowohl Synergien bilden als auch in Konflikt zueinander stehen. Allerdings haben weltweit nur wenige Studien bislang untersucht, wie Klimaschutz und Klimaanpassung in einer großen Anzahl an Städten unterschiedlicher Größe zueinander stehen; für Deutschland wurde dies bisher noch gar nicht unterssucht. Daher ist bisher wenig darüber bekannt, ob Vorreiterstädte im Klimaschutz auch das Feld in der Klimaanpassung anführen oder ob sich Städte eher nur auf eines der beiden Politikthemen fokussieren. Dieser Artikel entwickelt daher einen international anwendbaren Ansatz, um Städte hinsichtlich ihrer Klimapolitik zu bewerten. In diesem Ansatz werden mehrere Indikatoren zusammengeführt, die sich hinsichtlich Klimaschutz und -anpassung auf (1) den lokalen Willen und das Engagement, (2) die veröffentlichten Konzepte und (3) die verfolgten Ambitionen beziehen. Diesen Ansatz wenden wir an, um 104 unterschiedlich große deutsche Städte zu bewerten und identifizieren darauf aufbauend sechs Cluster: Vorreiter in der Klimapolitik, Vorreiter in der Klimaanpassung, Vorreiter im Klimaschutz, Aufsteiger in der Klimapolitik, Nachahmer in der Klimapolitik und Nachzügler in der Klimapolitik. Der Artikel diskutiert Erklärungsansätze für einzelne Städtepositionen und arbeitet heraus, dass eine ausgewogene Klimapolitik auf hohem Niveau von strukturellen Faktoren abhängt. Insbesondere die Stadtgröße, Pfade der lokalen Klimapolitik seit den 1990ern und Förderprogramme für Klimaschutz und Klimaanpassung spielen hierbei eine Rolle. KW - Climate mitigation KW - Climate adaptation KW - Climate policy integration KW - Urban planning KW - City ranking KW - Germany KW - Deutschland KW - Klimaanpassung KW - Klimapolitische Integration KW - Klimaschutz KW - Stadtplanung KW - Stadtranking Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03142-9 SN - 0165-0009 SN - 1573-1480 VL - 167 IS - 1-2 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Surminski, Swenja A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - Promoting flood risk reduction BT - the role of insurance in Germany and England JF - Earth's Future N2 - Improving society's ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from flooding requires integrated, anticipatory flood risk management (FRM). However, most countries still focus their efforts on responding to flooding events if and when they occur rather than addressing their current and future vulnerability to flooding. Flood insurance is one mechanism that could promote a more ex ante approach to risk by supporting risk reduction activities. This paper uses an adapted version of Easton's System Theory to investigate the role of insurance for FRM in Germany and England. We introduce an anticipatory FRM framework, which allows flood insurance to be considered as part of a broader policy field. We analyze if and how flood insurance can catalyze a change toward a more anticipatory approach to FRM. In particular we consider insurance's role in influencing five key components of anticipatory FRM: risk knowledge, prevention through better planning, property‐level protection measures, structural protection and preparedness (for response). We find that in both countries FRM is still a reactive, event‐driven process, while anticipatory FRM remains underdeveloped. Collaboration between insurers and FRM decision‐makers has already been successful, for example in improving risk knowledge and awareness, while in other areas insurance acts as a disincentive for more risk reduction action. In both countries there is evidence that insurance can play a significant role in encouraging anticipatory FRM, but this remains underutilized. Effective collaboration between insurers and government should not be seen as a cost, but as an investment to secure future insurability through flood resilience. KW - flooding KW - insurance KW - governance KW - risk reduction Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000587 SN - 2328-4277 VL - 5 SP - 979 EP - 1001 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER -