DKKV Promotional Award

The DKKV Promotional Award was launched in 2018 by the German Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction (DKKV e.V.) and has been awarded annually since then to honor current research work and best practice examples related to disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management. Since the promotion of young scientists is particularly important to the DKKV, the award is primarily aimed at young professionals.

The prize is aimed at German- and English-language bachelor’s and master’s theses and is awarded to both the best bachelor’s and the best master’s thesis. These will be awarded with prize money of €500 (Bachelor) and €1,000 (Master) as well as a two-year membership as a Young Professional in the DKKV.

DKKV Promotional Award 2023

The Promotional Award is given to theses that contribute to the DKKV vision: “Creating a resilient society through sustainable crisis and disaster risk reduction”. In this context, the submitted thesis should address one or more of the topics listed in the word cloud above.

Please send all required documents and possible questions via email to:

foerderpreis@dkkv.org. The application deadline is May 31, 2023.

Sponsors of the DKKV Promotional Award

We would like to thank our institutional member “Deutsches Rotes Kreuz” (DRK) for the kind support of the DKKV Promotional Award 2023!

With numerous projects for disaster risk reduction worldwide, the German Red Cross is committed to improving the resilience of affected populations in particularly threatened countries to the consequences of extreme weather events and supports disaster risk reduction measures in fragile and conflict-prone regions in particular.

Would you like to learn more about the DRK? Click here to go to the homepage.

TIME SCHEDULE

03.04.2023 Start of the application period

31.05.2023 End of application period

15.09.2023 End of the evaluation period

Announcement of the award winners expected at the beginning of October

Required application documents

In addition to your thesis, we require proof that your work has already been evaluated. Possible documents are your transcript of records, your degree certificate or a confirmation from the examination office. This document is for verification and will not be passed on to the jury. In addition, please submit the following documents combined into one document:

  • Cover sheet ​
  • Tabular curriculum vitae without grades​
  • Exposé of your thesis (approx. 3000 characters) ​
  • Optional: Letter of recommendation from your reviewer
  • Affidavit​
    Remarks

    The submitted thesis must not be older than two years (24 months) at the time of closing the application period. The submission date counts, which thus may not be before April 03, 2021. Only work that has already been submitted and finally evaluated will be accepted. You can apply for the sponsorship award more than once, as long as it is not the same thesis.

    After the application deadline, all submitted application documents will be reviewed and evaluated by the jury. The winners are expected to be announced at the end of 2023. The framework for the award ceremony has yet to be determined.

    Jury members 2023

    Quelle:

    Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Norbert Gebekken

    Universität der Bundeswehr München

    Quelle:

    Dr. Anne Schneibel

    Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)

    Quelle:

    Prof. Dr. Peter Schmiedtchen

    Hochschule Magdeburg –Stendal

    Quelle:

    Sylvia Wallasch

    Regierung von Schwaben

    Quelle:

    Prof. Dr. Wiltrud Terlau

    Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg

    Award winners 2022

    In 2022, the DKKV Promotion Award was sponsored by the THW Foundation.

    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.

    Sebastian Herbe

    Category Bachelor theses

    2nd place: Sari Rombach -” Risikoanalyse eines extremen Starkregenereignisses in Bonn –eine GIS-gestützte Untersuchung“

    3rd place: Elaine Donderer – “Rethinking Resilience – The Urban Political Ecology of Informal Settlements and Participatory Disaster Risk Reduction: A Comparative Case Study of Informal Settlements in Soweto and Belgrade”

    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.

    Chris Hetkämper

    Category Master theses

    2nd place: Florence Nick – “Resilience of people with disabilities in Germany during the Covid 19-pandemic”

    3rd place: Nathalie Sänger -” Exploring factors that influence urban planner`s behavior towards green infrastructure for climate change adaptation in Bonn”

    Award winners 2021

    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.

    Michael Skala

    Category Bachelor theses

    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.

    Katharina Seeger

    Category Master theses

    Award Winner 2020

    In 2020, the DKKV Promotional Award was presented with the support of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V). Bachelor’s and master’s theses written on the topic of “resilience” were eligible for submission.

    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.

    Janna Frischen

    Award Winner 2019

    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.

    Dominic Sett

    Award Winners 2018

    The German Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction (DKKV), in cooperation with the German Climate Foundation, awarded the “Preparedness 2030” promotional prize for the first time on October 5, 2018. After a thorough review of all papers, the sponsorship award was given to two people, Johanna Stötzer and Katharina Seeger!

    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.

    Katharina Seeger

    Category Bachelor theses

    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.

    Johanna Stötzer

    Category Master theses

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