Spontaneous volunteers and the flood disaster 2021 in Germany: Development of social innovations in flood risk management

Abstract

In the response of the flood disaster in Germany 2021 a vast number of spontaneous volunteers (SVs) participated. They organized coordinating services, developed emergent forms of SVs and thus hold the potential to improve existing flood managing capacities. This raises the need for in‐depth knowledge about SVs and organization, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), social and individual aspects. This article analyzed results of an online survey (n = 2636) with the aim to discuss challenges and potentials to develop SVs as social innovations in flood risk management. As a result, SVs are strong value‐based motivated, can be psychologically stressed and travel long distances, especially when they got aware of helping possibilities via social media. Disaster relief organizations rarely cooperate with or integrate SVs, but when they collaborate, SVs' satisfaction with authorities increases significantly. Based on the results, this article derives preplanning of useful concepts consider safety aspects, ICT utilization, foster mutual respect between SVs and authorities and supporting sense of community as key results for development of social innovations. Especially in light of pandemics, social crisis like refugee movements, and climate change‐related disasters, the requirement rises for engaging SVs.

When, at what speed, and how? Resilient transformation of the Vesdre river basin (Belgium) following the 2021 floods

“…Our study shows how the policy arrangement influences the temporal strategies that are important to be able to strengthen long-term resilience after an acute crisis, because policy-makers use them to integrate long-term perspectives in their choices which is needed given the long-term characteristics of climate-related issues. The July 2021 floods are a typical case that highlights different temporalities at stake in dual crises and therefore the importance of temporal strategies: on the one hand the challenges of rapid response and recovery [41,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70], on the other of long-term adaptation and resilience-building [12,14,16,17,71]. The temporal strategies help to promote a long-term focus in the aftermath of an acute shock [1], and the policy arrangement approach helps to identify factors of stability or change [36] of that policy domain.…”