21. Empowering Citizens’ Resilience—The FLOODLABEL

Floods and heavy rain events are on the rise, fostered by climate change. They cause damage in the same order of magnitude, but heavy rain can fall anywhere, irrespective of rivers or creeks and therefore affect everyone. The larger infrastructural measures taken by governmental authorities must be supplemented by private precautions taken by citizens themselves. The Floodlabel is a multi-stage concept that explains to homeowners their flood risk and provides instruction as to how to structurally secure their property against damage caused by floods, heavy rain, sewer backwater and groundwater. If these personal provision measures are implemented by sufficient numbers of citizens, this will strengthen the resilience of the community to these events. As this is a topic of international relevance, the Floodlabel developed in Germany and recommended by the climate protection portal of the German federal government is now being further developed for international use and is currently being adapted within two research projects for the special needs and conditions on the ground in Ghana and Iran.