Graduate of the Akkon University of Human Sciences Berlin, receives the DKKV Promotional Award 2022 in the category Bachelor for his outstanding thesis titled

“Die Stabsarbeit der Einsatzleitung Starkregen – Selbst-und Fremdwahrnehmung und Implikationen für künftige Entwicklungen“

Sebastian Herbe dealt with the flood disaster in July 2021, which represented a peak result for German civil protection. Within the framework of the research project, 17 experts, who were active as leaders in staffs or in subordinate leadership levels in the operational command of heavy rain, were interviewed in order to identify reasons for a deviating self-perception and causes for the inadequate functioning of the leadership system. The objective of the research project was to explore the reasons for a deviating self-perception and perception by others of the staff work of the storm surge management, to reveal problem areas, and to derive implications for future developments of the established management systems from the findings obtained.

Graduate of the Technical University of Cologne, receives the DKKV Promotional Award 2022 in the Master’s category for his outstanding thesis titled

“Methode zur Bewertung der Notfallplanung von Krankenhäusern im Bereich der Energieversorgung”

In his work, Chris Hetkämper dealt with the question of how emergency planning for energy supply in hospitals can be evaluated. The work developed a method that provides hospital operators with a way to evaluate and optimize their existing emergency planning in the area of energy supply. Technical and organizational aspects as well as vulnerability were considered as framework parameters in order to avoid a failure of the emergency power supply due to damaging events.

Graduate of Kiel University of Applied Sciences,received the DKKV Promotional Award 2021 in the Bachelor’s category for his outstanding thesis titled

“Entwicklung einer Aktivierenden Befragung im sozialraumorientierten Bevölkerungsschutz Ein Beitrag der Sozialen Arbeit zur Aktivierung einer Selbstschutz- und Selbsthilfekompetenz bei Bürger*Innen für eine stärkere gesellschaftliche Resilienz gegenüber Notlagen und Schadensereignissen”.

In his work, he dealt with the question of the extent to which an activating survey in social work can contribute to activating and promoting the self-protection and self-help competence of citizens in the context of social-space-oriented population protection, in order to positively influence social resilience to emergencies in the long term. The aim was to apply an activating survey as a method of social work for population protection.

Graduate of the University of Cologne, received the DKKV Promotional Award 2021 in the Master’s category for her outstanding thesis titled

“Geomorphological and sedimentary impacts of exceptional precipitation events on a dry valley in the Andean Precordillera (Tarapacá region, N Chile)”.

For her, the geomorphological and sedimentological investigation of exceptional precipitation and flood events in the Atacama Desert was not only in focus against the background of paleoclimatic reconstruction. Rather, her master’s thesis aimed to generate a fundamental understanding of the intensity and frequency of these rare but momentous and dangerous flood events, while providing starting points for future investigations.

graduate of the Joint Masters “Geography of Environmental Risks and Human Security” of the United Nations University and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, could convince the jury with her master thesis. She dealt here with the topic

„Drought Risk Assessment in Zimbabwe: A Spatial Analysis of Hazard, Exposure and Vulnerability“.

To assess drought vulnerability in Zimbabwe, she conducted a remote sensing-based analysis of vegetation health data in Zimbabwe from 1989-2019. She combined in-depth literature review with expert consultation to identify and select relevant indicators of drought vulnerability and rank them in order of relevance. Combined with exposure data, this allowed her to calculate the drought risk index, which can be used to optimize drought risk management and thus strengthen community resilience.

For the second time, the German Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction (DKKV) in cooperation with the German Climate Foundation has awarded the DKKV Promotional Award “Preparedness 2030”. In his master’s thesis at the United Nations University with the topic

„The Role of Social-psychological Factors for the Adaption of Domestic Rainwater Harvesting as a Measure of Adapting to Urban Water Scarcity in Rondebosch, Cape Town”

Dominic Sett studied rainwater harvesting as an adaptation strategy to increasing water scarcity in a suburb of Cape Town. The results of the work show that social-psychological factors should be given more attention in cost-benefit analyses and other adaptation strategies to further strengthen the resilience of (water) systems in Cape Town. The complexity as well as the timeliness of the topic convinced the jury.

Katharina Seeger has dedicated her bachelor thesis at the University of Cologne to the topic of

“Characterisation of modern tropical cyclone deposits at Chaung Thar by applying sedimentological and luminiscene dating approaches – towards using sedimentary evidence for long-term hazard assessment in Myanmar”.

For this purpose, she investigated recent and historical sedimentary deposits of tropical cyclones with respect to character, composition, age and size, among other things, in order to draw conclusions on the relevance of sedimentary analyses and luminescence dating for hazard assessment. The additionally applied method of luminescence dating proved to be an important tool for establishing a chronological framework.

Johanna Stötzer wrote her master thesis at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) on the topic of

“Development of a generic concept to analyze the accessibility of emergency facilities in critical infrastructure”

and developed generic and modular approaches to analyze the accessibility of emergency facilities in a critical road infrastructure on several scale levels. Her work provides a valuable decision support tool for the regional planning of a road network.