Were the floods in the UK 2007 and Germany 2013 game-changers?

Abstract

<jats:p>This paper examines recovery after major floods in the UK and Germany. It focuses on two areas that were badly hit by flooding: Catcliffe, near Sheffield in the UK, and Passau in Bavaria, Germany. It reports on surveys of residents and businesses in each place and on surveys of national flood experts in both countries. The two events were comparable in terms of impacts, levels of preparedness and government response and show similar patterns of speed and quality of recovery. In Germany, it took about 18 months for 90% or more of residents to get back to normal, while in the UK it took a year longer. This difference may be related to funding; in the UK, over 90% of funding came from household insurance while in Germany over 60% came from federal aid, which may have been quicker. In both countries, the economy had recovered to near normal within 12–18 months. The majority of people surveyed in both countries (74% in Germany and 67% in the UK) believe that their homes and businesses are as just as vulnerable now as they were before the respective floods. However, in the UK, half of the respondents thought their neighbourhood was safer and better prepared compared to only 11% in Germany. This may be because substantial progress has been made in improving protection in the UK in areas flooded in 2007. Both floods were considered to be ‘game-changers’ and resulted in a heightened awareness of flood risk, increased investment in flood defences and an increasing emphasis on citizens taking more responsibility for flood preparedness. However, the Environment Agency in the UK lacks powers to prevent development in flood-prone areas, in Germany there are issues of coordination across large catchments that cross state boundaries and the insurance sector could play a bigger role in ‘building back better’. Many homes and businesses continue to be at risk from major floods and more progress needs to be made in making them more resilient.</jats:p> <jats:p>This article is part of the theme issue ‘Urban flood resilience’.</jats:p>

Risk Social Contracts: Exploring Responsibilities Through the Lens of Citizens Affected by Flooding in Germany in 2021

“…The federal government has previously provided funding for flood affected citizens to aid flood recovery, for instance, after flood in 2013, 60% of the citizens received recovery aid funds [2]. This was (partly) terminated because now, citizens are responsible for their home and property by law [5].…”

“…The importance of citizen involvement in flood risk management and governance has been emphasised globally throughout the past decades, mirroring a broader localisation agenda within the resilience discourse. This shift away from a solely top-down management is supported by research [1], global policies (i.e., Sendai Framework (2015)), and at European level (EU Floods Directive 2007/60/EC), but also emerged as a lesson learnt from flooding events [2,3]. People or human-centred approaches to flood risk governance aim at complementing the topdown approach with a bottom-up initiative, moving towards decentralisation and sharing responsibilities [1,4].…”

Editorial: great floods have flown from simple sources

“…Drawing on their experience in New Zealand, Trowsdale et al [18] provide a stimulating and engaging piece to challenge engineering pre-conceptions about the value of stormwater reuse infrastructure, while Coates et al [19] apply flood modelling and agent-based simulation within a modelled geographic environment to study the time taken for post-flood recovery of micro-SMEs following the 2007 flood in Tewkesbury. A historic comparison of the response to serious flooding in the UK in 2007 and in Germany in 2013 is provided by Platt et al [20], mapping the changes in both countries that were stimulated by these events and assessing whether they have been effective. Also dealing with the consequences of flooding, Zhao & Guan [21] assess the indirect economic impacts using a flood footprint approach based on input-output theory.…”