Project I13 by Lisa Köhler (University of Potsdam and UFZ Leipzig): Multiple flood experience and social resilience

Timescale: Oct. 2021 – Sept. 2024

Supervisors:

Prof. Christian Kuhlicke, UFZ Leipzig & University of Potsdam

Prof. Annegret Thieken, University of Potsdam

Description

Many studies have explored the consequences of flood events for exposed households by focusing on single flood events. They have documented, among others, that the immediate experience of a flood event is often associated with enormous financial losses as well as with considerable negative health-related and psychologically distressing consequences resulting, among others, in anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. In this sense, flood experience may undermine the resilience of flood-exposed people, which includes not just the immediate pathological consequences, but also the wider perception of individual agency, emotions attached to the place of residency, social ties and networks as well as trust in responsible institutions. At the same time, there is a rapidly growing body of research showing that flood events also offer an opportunity for change: in the aftermath of flood events households, companies and authorities seem to be more inclined to invest in adaptation measures in order to mitigate the consequences of future flood events and by doing so are often able to reduce the monetary damage caused by a subsequent flood event quite effectively. However, most studies treat floods in isolation. By relying on a cross-sectional survey design, empirical studies usually try to better understand how individuals prepare for, cope with and recover from the impact of single flood events. Such event-centred studies, however, are hardly able to capture the possible legacy effects of previous floods and thus neglect the socio-environmental dynamics associated with experiencing repeated flood events and how they feedback on the resilience of exposed households.

The project I13 therefore aims at advancing the discussion by putting the potentially chronic nature of flood risks (i.e. exposed communities are undergoing repeated flood events within a relatively short time-span) at the forefront of the analysis and how it interacts with the resilience of exposed households (understood here as the ability to withstand and recover) as well their trust in their own efficacy, but also that of managing organisations and institutions at the forefront of its analysis. It hypothesizes that the experience of multiple flood events results in an increasing uptake of adaptive and emergency measures. At the same time, the experience may also undermine the resilience of exposed households and their trust in their individual coping and adaptive efficacy as well as their trust in managing organisations and institutions. Empirically, the study will focus on Germany, which has undergone a series of devastating flood events since 2002. It will survey differently affected communities (from single to multiple flood events) by means of a standardized household survey which will be complemented by in-depth interviews with affected residents.

Dedicated Regional Cluster: Central Europe / Germany

Related PhD-projects: Q3 (first period, Jonas Laudan) and P7 (second cohort, Lisa Berghäuser)