Geography and Disaster Risk Research

In research, we aim to develop concepts and methods as well as data and findings that will enable a deeper understanding of the social impacts of natural hazards, the underlying causes of damage and the effectiveness of precautionary measures. On this basis, the resilience of societies to natural events is to be sustainably improved so that societies are less susceptible to damage and can regenerate more quickly in the event of damage. The focus is on flood and heavy rain events, but also on other hydro-meteorological extreme events, such as droughts, heat and cold waves, hail or storms.

Our work is characterized by inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation as well as by the application of natural and social science methods, e.g. from empirical social research, statistics, geoinformatics and mathematical modeling. We focus on jointly developed, practice-relevant and scientifically challenging questions.

In the field of teaching, we offer courses in geosciences as well as in geography, which enable our graduates to understand and evaluate natural events and their effects with an interdisciplinary perspective. Students should be stimulated to critical reflection through problem-oriented and interactive teaching and integrated into research projects at an early stage through project and final papers. In the long term, this should improve the communication and perception of natural phenomena, their effects and precautionary measures - especially in schools.

 CV Prof. Dr. Annegret Thieken