This research project aims to improve resilience and adaptive capacity of cities in a smart manner to sustain urban living in Europe. While adaptation measures to reduce the impact of flooding exist, homeowners insufficiently implement them due to their lack of risk awareness and knowledge of measures and triggers to take action. The project explores dedicated geo-technology and ICT-supported risk communication approaches and tools to better understand how risk communication.
HKC therefore collaborated with academic and societal partners in Austria, the Netherlands and Flanders in this project funded by the JPI programme Urban Europe. Next to a prototype of a risk communication tool has been developed (see below), multiple academic publications, living labs, and societal outreach have been produced.
FLOODLABEL.net is a prototype application developed under the JPI Urban Europe funding program. It illustrates how homeowners can be informed about their individual flood risks and to support the planning and decision-making of experts and local governments to achieve more flood-resilient cities. The prototype was developed within the research project for selected Dutch case study areas. It is only available in Dutch.
Within the framework of the joint project „Sustainable strategies and technologies for flood risk management in arid and semi-arid areas – HOWAMAN”, the HKC-FLOODLABEL, which has already proven its worth in humid regions in Europe, is to be adapted to arid and semi-arid climatological conditions, as well as to the cultural and institutional framework in Iran.
HOWAMAN contributes to the funding measure „International Disaster and Risk Management - IKARIM“ and is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research through the programme „Research for Civil Security“.
The project is managed by the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management - RWTH Aachen University.
More informations:
Further information on the programme "Research for Civil Security" of the german goverment can be found at:
Ghana is one of the most flood-affected countries in West Africa. In addition to the annual flood events, Ghana is subject to numerous flood-induced cascading effects that can lead to the collapse of critical infrastructure. The effectiveness of flood risk management (FRM) is limited by the existing risk management infrastructure and governance structures.
This is where the “Participatory assessment of flood disaster prevention and development of an adapted coping system in Ghana - PARADeS" project comes in. The aim is to increase the country's resilience to flood hazards.
The FLOODLABEL developed by HKC for the German climatic and social conditions will be transferred and implemented in Ghana, taking into account the different nature of the natural hazards, the construction methods of the houses and the different possibilities of self-preparedness in Ghana. Hazard and risk communication will be adapted to the existing social and cultural aspects in Ghana. Under the name "FLOODLABELGHANA", HKC developed a pass certificate with a concept to strengthen self-preparedness for Ghana. The lessons learnt from the Floodlabel sub-project can be transferred to countries with similar natural hazards in the future.
PARADeS contributes to the funding measure „International Disaster and Risk Management - IKARIM“ and is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research through the programme „Research for Civil Security“
The PARADeS project is coordinated by the Institute of Geography at the University of Bonn under the leadership of Prof. Dr. M. Evers.
More information:
https://www.geographie.uni-bonn.de/parades/de
Further information on the programme "Research for Civil Security" of the german goverment can be found at:
PARADeS was designed and implemented as a participatory research and development project. Therefore, next to scientific output also trainings for experts and multipliers were developed in order to enable tailored and free access to specialist knowledge from various actors and fields of FDRM. Target groups of the trainings are experts and decision makers from public authorities as well as further actors and experts in the field of FDRM. Additional, universities and students are addressed as multipliers of FDRM knowledge.
The trainings were developed within the interdisciplinary project team and in close collaboration between scientists and FDRM professionals from Germany and Ghana. Furthermore, pilot trainings were conducted and used for intensive evaluation and feedback on content, didactics and the provided training material. Based on this, the trainings were revised and transformed into Open Educational Resources (OER) that are free of access and can be shared and adapted under the license of the creative commons.
