New CLICCS study on urban water risks in Hamburg

23 May 2025, by Benjamin Poschlod

Photo: undp.org

The study “Towards a socio-ecological system understanding of urban flood risk and barriers to climate change adaptation using causal loop diagrams” led by Franziska S. Hanf explores urban water risks in the city of Hamburg from a systemic perspective. The collaborative work within the excellence cluster CLICCS in the sub-project C1 with contributions from Benjamin Poschlod, Jana Sillmann, and Malte von Szombathely applies causal loop diagrams to describe key physical and socio-economic processes and investigate the role of feedback loops in the urban system. Various feedback loops are identified covering physical aspects (river morphology, sediment transport and engineering) and socio-economic characteristics (path dependency, car dependency, urban development, poverty, health, silo-thinking, risk awareness). Thereby, the study aims to better understand barriers of sustainable climate change adaptation and to break down silo-thinking in urban flood risk assessments.