Resilience, risk communication and responsibility in the context of flood prevention - the relation between public protection and private mitigation in flood-prone settlements

摘要

The flood in 2013 is an example of an extreme natural disaster with deep impacts on communities living along rivers in Central Germany. However, this is not the first time such an event has had disastrous impacts on these cities over the past 11 years. As a result of such events, authorities have recently started to communicate their realization that absolute flood protection is not feasible. Hence, the relationship between state and society has recently undergone a change regarding the understanding of responsibility within flood risk management. Residents in flood-prone areas are now being increasingly encouraged to take personal prevention and protection measures. Legal adjustments to the Federal Water Act ((sic) 5 Abs. 2) supports this shift. Nevertheless, federal states like Saxony have invested large amounts of money to commission structural flood protection projects during the last decades. As a result, residents in flood-prone areas who have never experienced flooding before, are lulled into a false sense of security. Consequently, we scrutinize the motivation of flood-exposed households with regard to taking private protection and prevention measures. This paper argues that a transfer of protection responsibility to private households should be supported by appropriate direct two-way feedback communication. The argumentation is based on the findings of a case study conducted in the City of Leipzig. In sum, we argue that an improved risk communication strategy is crucial to maintain risk awareness and encourage households to implement useful flood protection and prevention measures.