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  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mysiak, Jaroslav
A1  - Surminski, Swenja
A1  - Thieken, Annegret
A1  - Mechler, Reinhard
A1  - Aerts, Jeroen C. J. H.
T1  - Brief communication: Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction - success or warning sign for Paris?
JF  - Natural hazards and earth system sciences
N2  - In March 2015, a new international blueprint for disaster risk reduction (DRR) was adopted in Sendai, Japan, at the end of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR, 14-18 March 2015). We review and discuss the agreed commitments and targets, as well as the negotiation leading the Sendai Framework for DRR (SF-DRR) and discuss briefly its implication for the later UN-led negotiations on sustainable development goals and climate change.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-2189-2016
SN  - 1561-8633
VL  - 16
SP  - 2189
EP  - 2193
PB  - Copernicus
CY  - Göttingen
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Aerts, J. C. J. H.
A1  - Botzen, W. J. Wouter
A1  - Clarke, K. C.
A1  - Cutter, S. L.
A1  - Hall, J. W.
A1  - Merz, Bruno
A1  - Michel-Kerjan, E.
A1  - Mysiak, J.
A1  - Surminski, Swenja
A1  - Kunreuther, H.
T1  - Integrating human behaviour dynamics into flood disaster risk assessment
JF  - Nature climate change
N2  - The behaviour of individuals, businesses, and government entities before, during, and immediately after a disaster can dramatically affect the impact and recovery time. However, existing risk-assessment methods rarely include this critical factor. In this Perspective, we show why this is a concern, and demonstrate that although initial efforts have inevitably represented human behaviour in limited terms, innovations in flood-risk assessment that integrate societal behaviour and behavioural adaptation dynamics into such quantifications may lead to more accurate characterization of risks and improved assessment of the effectiveness of risk-management strategies and investments. Such multidisciplinary approaches can inform flood-risk management policy development.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0085-1
SN  - 1758-678X
SN  - 1758-6798
VL  - 8
IS  - 3
SP  - 193
EP  - 199
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -