Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 1519–1540, 2016 www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/16/1519/2016/ doi:10.5194/nhess-16-1519-2016 © Author(s) 2016. CC Attribution 3.0 License. The flood of June 2013 in Germany: how much do we know about its impacts? Annegret H. Thieken1, Tina Bessel2,6, Sarah Kienzler1, Heidi Kreibich3,6, Meike Müller4, Sebastian Pisi5, and Kai Schröter3,6 1University of Potsdam, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24–25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany 2Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Economics (ECON), Waldhornstrasse 27, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany 3Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 5.4 Hydrology, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany 4Deutsche Rückversicherung AG, NatCat-Center, Hansaallee 177, 40549 Düsseldorf, Germany 5German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV), UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany 6CEDIM – Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany Correspondence to: Annegret H. Thieken (
[email protected]) Received: 25 November 2015 – Published in Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss.: 15 January 2016 Revised: 26 May 2016 – Accepted: 30 May 2016 – Published: 1 July 2016 Abstract. In June 2013, widespread flooding and consequent The case further demonstrates that procedures and stan- damage and losses occurred in Central Europe, especially dards for impact data collection in Germany are widely miss- in Germany. This paper explores what data are available to ing. Present impact data in Germany are fragmentary, hetero- investigate the adverse impacts of the event, what kind of geneous, incomplete and difficult to access.