Risk, space and system theory: communication and management of natural hazards: Jürgen Pohl, Swen Zehetmair and Julia Mayer

Abstract

Introduction ‘Risk’ is closely linked to human decisions. Decisions are necessary to stay alive, to move on and to develop society. By taking decisions, we reduce our options for the future and create constraints. Our actions may have unexpected consequences, i.e. we produce risks. If we think of the risks of an investment, the risks of the world ? nance system, the risks of global warming and so forth, it seems clear that risk is closely bound to time. However, damages – as realized risks – have a spatial dimension, too, for instance the size of the affected area, the accessibility of the region under stress and its speci? c ‘spatial structure’. This chapter looks at risk as an aspect of decision-making in relation to both its chronological and spatial dimensions.1 Of course, different perspectives on risk and space are possible. Fuchs and Keiler (in this volume) describe the idea of coupling the different concepts for a deeper understanding of the spatial dimensions of hazard and risk: a positivist view of risk, on the one hand, and constructivist approaches on the other hand, with their different roots and scienti? c methods. We want to take a look at spatial aspects of risk management (in a broader sense). We especially want to regard the link between risk and space from the position of system theory according to Niklas Luhmann. Space and place are important elements of different kinds of social systems like the political system, the scienti? c system or the system of the mass media and organizations. So we will not start by discussing the spatial aspects of hazardous events, but by introducing the role of space and place within social systems. We especially want to look at the ‘administrative space’ in A ood management, the perception of the spatial dimension in an early warning system and the meaning of places in the mass media when reporting on disastrous events.