Urban pluvial flood adaptation: Results of a household survey across four German municipalities

In recent years, German cities were heavily impacted by pluvial flooding and related damage is projected to increase due to climate change and urbanisation. It is important to ask how to improve urban pluvial flood risk management. To understand the current state of property level adaptation, a survey was conducted in four municipalities that had recently been impacted by pluvial flooding. A hybrid framework based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and the Protection Action Decision Model (PADM) was used to investigate drivers of adaptive behaviour through both descriptive and regression analyses. Descriptive statistics revealed that participants tended to instal more low- and medium-cost measures than high-cost measures. Regression analyses showed that coping appraisal increased protection motivation, but that the adaptive behaviour also depends on framing factors, particularly homeownership. We further found that, while threat appraisal solely affects protection motivation and responsibility appraisal affects solely maladaptive thinking, coping appraisal affects both. Our results indicate that PMT is a solid starting point to study adaptive behaviours in the context of pluvial flooding, but we need to go beyond that by, for instance, considering factors of the PADM, such as responsibility, ownership, or respondent age, to fully understand this complex decision-making process.

Automated summary

The study found that participants tend to install low- and medium-cost measures in response to pluvial flooding. Regression analyses showed that adaptive behavior is influenced by coping appraisal, as well as other factors like homeownership. These results suggest that a comprehensive understanding of the decision-making process regarding pluvial flood risk management requires consideration of various factors beyond just protection motivation theory.