The ENHANCE project interviewed Birgit Gerkensmeier, a project partner from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG), on the case study North Sea/ Wadden Sea storm surges – risk culture, perception and management.
“The risk management at the Wadden Sea region should be seen as a multi-hazard task. We should consider different hazards such as demographic change, storm surges etc.”, says Birgit Gerkensmeier.
Watch the video for more insights on the case study findings!
Note to readers:
Birgit Gerkensmeier is a member of the Department Human Dimensions of Coastal Areas, Institute of Costal Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht and a PhD student at the University of Hamburg, Germany. During her studies in geography at the Universities of Bremen and Hamburg, she had already gained experience in storm surge research and was also engaged in different research projects dealing amongst others with raising stakeholders’ awareness on flood risks in regard to climate change impacts.
In the ENHANCE project Birgit is engaged in the case study on the trilateral Wadden Sea Region, assessing the scope of a multi-sector partnership on a transnational level as an additional measure to increase resilience against natural hazards in the area. This work is also related to her PhD, within which she focuses on handling risk and uncertainties resulting from natural hazards in coastal areas, putting major emphasis on the analysis of the role of stakeholders in a complex decision-making system.
UNISDR - Paola Albrito
IVM - Jeroen Aerts
