The flood of June 2013 in Germany: How much do we know about its impacts?

Natural Hazards Earth System Sciences Discussions, January 2016, doi:10.5194/nhess-2015-324:

This paper explores what data is currently available to describe the impacts of the flood event of June 2013 and what can be learnt from them about the types and severities of flood impacts in different sectors. It analyses how good is this data and information to fulfil requirements that were recently proposed for disaster reporting on the European and international level.

The study reveals that flood-affected residents suffered from a large range of impacts, among which mental health and supply problems were perceived more seriously than financial losses. The most frequent damage type among affected companies was business interruption. This demonstrates that the current scientific focus on direct (financial) damage is insufficient to describe the overall impacts and severity of flood events. It further demonstrates that procedures and standards for impact data collection in Germany are widely missing. Present impact data in Germany are fragmentary, heterogeneous, incomplete and difficult to access. In order to fulfil, for example, the monitoring and reporting requirements of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, more efforts on impact data collection are needed.