PD Dr Heidi Kreibich, head of the “Flood Risk and Climate Adaptation” working group in GFZ Section 4.4 Hydrology, was awarded the International Hydrology Prize, the “Volker Medal”. It is awarded by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural and Communication Organisation (UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The award recognises Kreibich's socially and internationally relevant work on the analysis and management of flood risks in dynamic human-water systems. The award ceremony took place during the joint conference “Bridging the Gap between Water Science and Solutions” organised by IAHS and the Brazilian Association of Water Resources (ABRHidro) in Florianopolis, Brazil.

About the Volker Medal

Since 2014, two medals have been awarded as part of the International Hydrology Prize: The Dooge Medal and the Volker Medal. The Volker Medal places great emphasis on the fact that the research addresses issues of public interest and that the research results and hydrological expertise have been used for the benefit of society at large. In particular, the Volker Medal also recognises the international dimension of scientific work: people are honoured for work that goes beyond the borders of their own country as well as beyond those of their specific field of interest. The award also recognises international leadership in the field. The medal is named after Adriaan Volker (1917-2000), a former president of the IAHS.

From the laudation

Heidi Kreibich was honoured “in recognition of her steady and distinguished contribution in advancing the hydrological sciences across disciplines, in particular to the analysis and management of flood risks in dynamic human-water systems”.

Her outstanding contributions to hydrological science and its applications, which were particularly emphasised in the laudation, include:

1) the development of probabilistic multivariable damage models, including contributions to impact-based forecasting
(e.g. Kreibich et al. 2017a, Rözer et al. 2021, Paprotny et al. 2021)

2) the development of the cost assessment cycle for continuous integrated cost assessment in risk management
(Kreibich et al. 2014)

3) the development and promotion of the analysis of paired events (flood or drought events that occur consecutively at the same location)
(Kreibich et al. 2017b, Kreibich et al. 2022, Kreibich et al. 2023)

About the person

Heidi Kreibich has long been involved in the assessment, modelling and management of flood damage. She came to the GFZ in 2002 for her first post-doc position in the Section Hydrology. In 2015, she took over as head of the “Flood Risk and Climate Adaptation” working group in the Section Hydrology and became a private lecturer at the Institute of Geography at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2015 she received the GFZ Senior Scientist Employee Award and in 2017 the Helmholtz ERC Recognition Award. Heidi Kreibich holds various leadership positions in international bodies, including President of the Natural Hazards Division of the European Geosciences Union and President of the International Commission on Human-Water Feedbacks of the IAHS.
 

Overview of the scientific publications mentioned in the award:  

Kreibich, H., van den Bergh, J. C. J. M., Bouwer, L. M., Bubeck, P., Ciavola, P., Green, C., Hallegatte, S., Logar, I., Meyer, V., Schwarze, R., Thieken, A. H. (2014): Costing natural hazards. Nature Climate Change, 4, 303-306, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2182

Kreibich, H., Botto, A., Merz, B., Schröter, K. (2017a): Probabilistic, Multivariable Flood Loss Modeling on the Mesoscale with BT-FLEMO. - Risk analysis, 37, 4, 774-787.
https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12650

Kreibich, H., Di Baldassarre, G., Vorogushyn, S., Aerts, J. C. J. H., Apel, H., Aronica, G. T., Arnbjerg-Nielsen, K., Bouwer, L. M., Bubeck, P., Caloiero, T., Do, T. C., Cortès, M., Gain, A. K., Giampá, V., Kuhlicke, C., Kundzewicz, Z. W., Llasat, M. C., Mård, J., Matczak, P., Mazzoleni, M., Molinari, D., Nguyen, D., Petrucci, O., Schröter, K., Slager, K., Thieken, A. H., Ward, P. J., Merz, B. (2017b): Adaptation to flood risk - results of international paired flood event studies. - Earth's Future, 5, 10, 953-965. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000606

Kreibich, H., Loon, A. F. V., Schröter, K. et al. (2022): The challenge of unprecedented floods and droughts in risk management. Nature, 608, 80-86, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04917-5

Kreibich, H., Schröter, K., Di Baldassarre, G., et al. (2023): Panta Rhei benchmark dataset: socio-hydrological data of paired events of floods and droughts. Earth System Science Data, 15, 5, 2009-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2009-2023

Paprotny, D., Kreibich, H., Morales-Nápoles, O., Wagenaar, D., Castellarin, A., Carisi, F., Bertin, X., Schröter, K., Merz, B. (2021): A probabilistic approach to estimating residential losses from different flood types. - Natural Hazards, 105, 2569-2601.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04413-x

Rözer, V., Peche, A., Berkhahn, S., Feng, Y., Fuchs, L., Graf, T., Haberlandt, U., Kreibich, H., Sämann, R., Sester, M., Shehu, B., Wahl, J., Neuweiler, I. (2021): Impact‐based forecasting for pluvial floods. - Earth's Future, 9, 2, 2020EF001851.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001851