Two years of intensive research have now produced the summarized results of the BMBF-HoWas2021 project, the final publication of which was released today. The publication focuses on crisis communication and governance during the devastating July floods in Germany in 2021. It provides comprehensive insights and assessments of the warning and management processes and shares findings for future crisis situations, which are communicated as concrete recommendations for action for practitioners and policymakers.
The collaboration of various scientists with expertise from the fields of water management, disaster research, communication sciences, administrative sciences and natural risk research, who have worked together with the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), thus enables a multidisciplinary analysis that summarizes the following findings:
- The traceability of flood information, such as base flows and water levels, is essential and should be urgently improved.
- Flood forecasts are fundamentally subject to uncertainties, which makes transparent communication of these uncertainties necessary.
- Warnings should be individually adapted to the situation, knowledge and skills of the addressees.
- Better preparation and training for complex flood scenarios than has been practiced to date is necessary.
- Collecting, processing and disseminating knowledge from crisis situations such as the July floods in 2021 is important for future flood prevention and response.
You can now find the BMBF-HoWas 2021 project final publication in the DKKV publication series.
Homepage for security research of the BMBF.