Reconfigurating hydro-social territories after the 2021 flood in Germany. Pathways towards resilience?

With the loss of 180 lives, the 2021 flood was not only one of the most devastating natural disasters in Germany history, it can also be seen as another missed opportunity to use the reconstruction phase to rebuild more resilient and sustainable settlement structures. This paper presents first results of a study aiming at identify key contextual factors driving the reconstruction process. Therefore it relies on the concept of hydro-social territories. With this analytical framework we focus on social practice and narratives and how they interact with multiple human and non-human factors. By doing so, we attempt to move away from an external mechanistic perspective on reconstruction efforts towards an endemic perspective that is interested in social practices and the associated diversity of perspectives of different actors. The analysis is based on 30+ qualitative interviews conducted with representatives of the civil society, planning agency, municipalities as well as water management authorities. Based on the interviews we identify some of the key cultural, political, institutional and social contextual factors shaping how hydro-social territories are reconfigurated.