Flood Label for buildings: a tool for more flood-resilient cities

Abstract

River floods are among the most expensive natural disasters in Europe. Traditional flood protection methods are not sufficient anymore. It is widely acknowledged in the scholarly debate and in practice of flood risk management that traditional flood protection measures such as dikes need to be complemented with measures to increase the resilience of cities. For cities to become flood-resilient, actions by land users (and homeowners) are required. Currently, land users insufficiently implement measures to mitigate flood-induced damages. Reasons for this include the lack of knowledge about potential measures and the benefits as well as lack of tailored information on flood risk. In this paper, a tool is discussed that addresses these two issues: the German Flood Label for buildings (Hochwasserpass). It is discussed how such a tool can create awareness by land users and how it can trigger the realization of precautionary damage mitigation measures. It will then be discussed how such a tool needs to be embedded in a strategic governance arrangement between land users, water authorities and insurance companies to ultimately achieve flood-resilient cities.