Worldwide, more people are affected by flooding than by any other natural hazard. Owing to changing climate and increasing urbanization, negative impacts on the physical and mental health and psychosocial well-being of populations are expected to increase. Yet, health and well-being impacts are often neglected in risk assessments because they are difficult to quantify. Currently, there is a lack of systemic understanding of the flood-human-health system. However, this is necessary for developing sustainable adaptation pathways.

In order to improve the understanding of the flood-human-health system, the HI-CliF project aims to quantify flood risk, focusing on health and well-being impacts. In particular, adaptation pathways will be developed in the context of future climatic and socioeconomic changes. The project will use data sources and modeling methods, and bring together transdisciplinary expertise from the fields of climate risk, social sciences, and public health. The project is based on several case studies from Germany and Vietnam based where the effectiveness of potential adaptation strategies will be assessed. Better understanding and advanced modeling capabilities of the flood-human-health system will reduce the magnitude of future risks, thus, contributing to the achievement of the United Nations' key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).