Understanding and enhancing social resilience to flood impacts (2/3)

Abstract der Sitzung

Plenty of studies are warning that the risk of flooding is rapidly rising due to the overlapping effects of climate change and fast urbanization. At the same time, in many regions, the coping and adaptive capacity of human societies have been continuingly enhanced along with general social economic development and technical advancements. Actually, many flood prone areas are among the most developed areas around the world (e.g. coasts, river deltas, flood plains, hilly valleys). This seems to indicate that societies are able to manage flood impacts and/or live with floods, i.e., societies hold a capacity of resilience to floods.

The emerging scientific concept of flood resilience specifically targets this phenomenon, but it is yet far too little developed to be of substantial use. While different flood management measures were debated at various levels for a long time, decision-making is hampered by multiple scientific knowledge gaps and the lack of effective measures at specific areas. To discuss the details of whether, where and how social systems, community groups of actors can enhance their resilience to flood impacts, we invite participations in the session “Understanding and enhancing social resilience to flood impacts” at the Deutscher Kongress für Geographie 2023.

The session aims to facilitate the exchange between researchers from multiple disciplines on the current state of flood resilience studies. Submissions of research abstracts are welcome in particularly on topics of (but not limited to):

1. Research progresses in the field of flood resilience

2. Assessment and/or modeling of social resilience to flood impacts

3. Theoretical and/or empirical studies of flood resilience

4. Comparison of flood resilience over space and time

5. Measures that could enhance social resilience to flood impacts