the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Individual Flood Risk Adaptation in Germany: Exploring the Role of Different Types of Flooding
Abstract. Whether and how flood-affected people prepare for flooding is commonly assumed to depend on their perception of the risk, coping options, and responsibilities. Furthermore, the influence of different flood types, i.e., fluvial, flash, and urban pluvial floods, is unclear, but might be relevant for effective risk communication. Up to now, risk communication has mainly addressed fluvial flooding situations. We use survey data from more than 3000 households affected by different types of flooding in Germany to investigate the influence of flood type on adaptive behaviour in addition to other influencing factors. We use descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and single-factor ANOVA to identify differences and similarities between respondents. We use linear regressions to identify factors that influence households’ adaptive behaviour in the context of fluvial, pluvial, and flash flooding.
We found that most respondents were motivated to protect themselves, but that there were flood type-specific differences in the factors influencing an adaptive response. For example, those affected by fluvial events had most often implemented measures before the last flooding and had experienced flooding before, but frequently showed signs of emotional coping and were less likely to implement (more) measures. In contrast, those affected by flash flooding showed less confidence in the effectiveness of measures, but were less likely to rate their costs as too high and were most likely to implement measures after the event. We argue that, inter alia, the severity of the flood processes, the experiences of previous flooding, and the management of flooding all shape adaptive behaviour. Regardless of the type of flooding, the perception of the effectiveness of adaptive measures and a positive perception of personal responsibility were found to be crucial for motivating those affected to protect themselves. Further analyses suggest that these two key elements can be strengthened by offering financial support for adaptive measures. We also found that communication on a municipality level enhances residents’ sense of personal responsibility. We conclude that communication and management strategies need to involve municipalities and should be tailored to the locally relevant flood type.
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-162', Anonymous Referee #1, 26 Feb 2024
This paper investigates the influence of different types of flooding on adaptive behavior and risk communication in Germany. The authors use survey data from over 3000 households affected by fluvial, flash, and urban pluvial floods to examine the factors that influence adaptive behavior and the effectiveness of different types of adaptive measures. The findings suggest that there are flood type-specific differences in adaptive responses, with fluvial flood-affected households implementing measures before the event but showing signs of emotional coping, while flash flood-affected households are more likely to implement measures after the event. However, the lack of detailed methodology and comparisons with existing literature limit the paper's overall quality. This paper still needs a major revision before it could be acceptable for publication.
(1) The paper lacks a detailed description of how to collect and analyze the survey data. Authors should provide more details on the methodology section. Specifically, how was the sample selected, and what statistical techniques were used to analyze the data? It would be useful to provide more information on the survey design, sampling methods, and data analysis techniques to help the readers.
(2) The paper could benefit from a more in-depth discussion of the limitations of the study, such as the potential biases in the survey data and the generalizability of the findings to other regions. For example, have you considered the potential biases in the survey data, such as non-response bias or selection bias? How do these biases affect the generalizability of your findings?
(3) The paper would be strengthened by including comparisons with other related research in the field of flood risk adaptation to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of the conclusion. I think it is also necessary to compare your findings with existing literature on flood risk adaptation. It would be valuable to discuss how your results align with or differ from previous studies in the field.
Besides, the format of this manuscript is poor, especially the placement of the text in the tables, and the images have the low resolution. These problems need to be carefully resolved.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-162-RC1 -
AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Lisa Dillenardt, 18 Jun 2024
Dear Marvin Ravan, and Reviewers,
On behalf of all the authors, I would like to thank you for the constructive comments and criticism received on our manuscript entitled ‘Individual Flood Risk Adaptation in Germany: Exploring the Role of Different Types of Flooding‘. We believe that in the current revision we have addressed the comments raised by the reviews and that in doing so our revised manuscript is now more suitable for publication in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.
We are looking forward to your comments.
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AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Lisa Dillenardt, 18 Jun 2024
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-162', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 May 2024
The paper provides an overview on how experiencing a flooding event may impact people's attitudes towards these events. In particular, it does so by building on data collected among the German population that was exposed to three types of floods: fluvial floods, urban pluvial floods and flash floods (circa 3000 households). The analysis is framed within the framework of the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and the Protection Action Decision Model (PADM). The topics approached in the paper are extremely relevant as we can expect these events to become more and more common and more and more disruptive in a warming planet. The structure is adequate, but I am raising some points that I hope the authors would be happy to consider as a contribution to improve the quality of their manuscript:
(1) It would be useful to quote the official documents (even though they may be in German) of the Federal Water Act mentioned on line 42/43.
(2) Regarding Figure 1, I understand it builds on previous papers that are, rightfully, cited, but where does the top sentence ("... are caused by the release of large quantities [...]") come from? Would not it be easier to have a full sentence? Are you providing a definition of floods?
(3) On line 89 you mention that "The PADM adds - among other variables - [...]". What does it add to? Compared to what? I guess, maybe, the PMT?
(4) On line 161 you mention "the average age". I would avoid using "average" as a term, as it may be understood in different ways according to the context. Are we talking about the mean? The median?
(5) I am wondering if the decision to reach out to people through Facebook (mentioned on line 166) may represent a cause of concerned over biased sample selection. Are not older people significantly less likely to be on social media? Also, is this a standard practice? If other studies approached respondents in the same way, it may be useful to say so.
(6) On Table 2, gender options are listed as "m/f/d". What does "d" stand for?
(7) On the phrasing "Yet, most of those affected by flash, fluvial and urban pluvial foods [...]" (line 266) I am wondering if these words simply imply every respondent. Are not you interviewing people affected by these three types of floods?
(8) The description of the statistics is clear but I am particularly concerned about one question and how it was measured (see Table 5). Every question (or most of them) measures the degree of agreement from 1 to 6, where 1 indicated full agreement. However, Question 1 seems to be reversed, where very low levels indicate a disagreement (not really a disagreement, but an expectation that the event may not manifest). I found this a rather confusing approach. In a sense, it could have been phrased as a statement like "Your apartment would be hit by flooding" and then a scale of agreement from 1 to 6 as all the others. I guess you could revert the values and turn the measuring of this question into something closer to the others? (I hope this point is clear enough but I am more than happy to come back to it).
(9) On Table 6, it would probably be easier for the reader to see the dependent variable pointed out in the table itself rather than in its description. At least, this is the standard approach in econometrics, where regression results are omnipresent.
(10) I have some points on the results of the regression as presented in Table 7. (a) It could be interesting to introduce event- fixed effects. Fiexed Effects models are straightforward to add in a simple Ordinary Least Square and would help capturing anything that is specific to that single event and that the other independent variables would not be able to capture, improving the fitness of the model. (b) Maybe test the errors for heteroskedasticity? This is one of the standard assumptions (see, for instance, Wooldridge's Introductory Econometrics) to guarantee consistent and unbiased estimates. If you were to find issues of heteroskedasticity, it could be useful to provide measures of robust standard errors. (c) I notice that you are also concerned by this in the pages that follow, but I was wondering if you could compare your R-squared to those from studies that adopted a similar approach. If the R-squared there are also found to be so small, a somehow less worrying issue should be raised for your single case (and maybe a methodological discussion for the whole field should be raised). Otherwise, if this low R-square is specific to your manuscript you may want to rethink your model. (d) One potential way to improve the fitness of your model may be to account for insurance claim data (this data is difficult to obtain at the granular level due to privacy issues, though). It could be interesting to insert the amount of damages faced by these households in their attitudes and their reactions to the events. They may have experienced flood events first-hand, but if the damages were not so consistent they may have been left unaltered by the events.
To conclude, I hope you fill find these comments useful and I wish you good luck with the rest of your work!
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-162-RC2 -
AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Lisa Dillenardt, 18 Jun 2024
Dear Marvin Ravan, and Reviewers,
On behalf of all the authors, I would like to thank you for the constructive comments and criticism received on our manuscript entitled ‘Individual Flood Risk Adaptation in Germany: Exploring the Role of Different Types of Flooding‘. We believe that in the current revision we have addressed the comments raised by the reviews and that in doing so our revised manuscript is now more suitable for publication in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.
We are looking forward to your comments.
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AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Lisa Dillenardt, 18 Jun 2024
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