Abstract
AbstractImproving society's ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from flooding requires integrated, anticipatory flood risk management (FRM). However, most countries still focus their efforts on responding to flooding events if and when they occur rather than addressing their current and future vulnerability to flooding. Flood insurance is one mechanism that could promote a more ex ante approach to risk by supporting risk reduction activities. This paper uses an adapted version of Easton's System Theory to investigate the role of insurance for FRM in Germany and England. We introduce an anticipatory FRM framework, which allows flood insurance to be considered as part of a broader policy field. We analyze if and how flood insurance can catalyze a change toward a more anticipatory approach to FRM. In particular we consider insurance's role in influencing five key components of anticipatory FRM: risk knowledge, prevention through better planning, property‐level protection measures, structural protection and preparedness (for response). We find that in both countries FRM is still a reactive, event‐driven process, while anticipatory FRM remains underdeveloped. Collaboration between insurers and FRM decision‐makers has already been successful, for example in improving risk knowledge and awareness, while in other areas insurance acts as a disincentive for more risk reduction action. In both countries there is evidence that insurance can play a significant role in encouraging anticipatory FRM, but this remains underutilized. Effective collaboration between insurers and government should not be seen as a cost, but as an investment to secure future insurability through flood resilience.
Highlights
In many countries around the world flooding is a very costly natural hazard, causing loss of life, destroying or damaging assets, as well as bringing disruption to communities and business processes
We explore the potential for insurance to promote a move towards anticipatory flood risk management (FRM) by investigating the cases of England and Germany
In England, the roles of the government and the insurance industry have always been clearly delineated; the government is responsible for FRM as a whole and the insurance industry remains the sole provider of flood insurance
Summary
The importance of anticipatory flood risk management, with an enhanced focus on risk reduction, is increasing, but remains underdeveloped. Flood insurance can play a significant role in encouraging anticipatory flood risk management, but this remains underutilized. Collaboration between insurers and government is not a cost, but an investment to secure insurability through better flood resilience. This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record.
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