Strengthening resilience in reconstruction after extreme events – Insights from flood affected communities in Germany

Abstract

Disaster resilience and building back better (BBB) are key concepts in the disaster risk and resilience discourse; however, these concepts often remain vague for many stakeholders involved in recovery. Based on the reconstruction process in Germany after the extreme floods of 2021 that caused more than 180 deaths, we explore challenges and opportunities to strengthen resilient recovery in one of the world's wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries. We examine factors that contributed to severe losses and damages and assess different phases of the reconstruction process. In addition, we identify and discuss measures to support resilience building, focusing particularly on issues of land management, planning and infrastructure. Our findings provide new insights into how funding schemes and planning approaches contribute to or block resilience building and BBB. The results are also highly relevant for other world regions hit by extreme events and for the international discourse on disaster resilience, loss and damage and BBB, for example, how funding arrangements and quality criteria need to be designed to support disaster resilient reconstruction.