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Amongst numerous natural hazards, flooding annually causes the highest economic and societal losses in Europe. A reason for these losses are rising number of exposed assets in risk prone areas. Additionally, changes in extreme hydro-meteorological events impact the flood-resilience of such cities. Complementing government led protection and adaptation measures, private measures (dry- and wet-flood proofing, barrier systems, deflection of flood discharge, etc.) have been seen to decrease potential damages by flood events. Nevertheless, private protection and adaptation measures are not always adequately implemented, which is amongst others, the result of insufficient communication pathways between flood authorities and homeowners. The aim of the FLOODLABEL project is to increase the resilience and the adaptive capacity of cities in a smart manner. The FLOODLABEL is a prototype tool which aims at informing homeowners about their individual flood risks and to support the planning and decision-making of experts and local governments in risk management processes. By developing the FLOODLABEL tool both private stakeholders and homeowners can be involved in decision-making processes to enhance the resilience of communities. Hence, this study focuses on how homeowners in flood prone areas can be motivated to realise private measures by considering their knowledge about hazards, their risk behaviour and individual communication strategies wanted. The case study areas are sites in neighbourhoods that are prone to different types of flooding in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria. In these areas, the FLOODLABEL is explored and tested in terms of its social and technical functionality as well as its ability to improve risk communication. Preliminary results give insight into current protection and adaptation strategies realised by inhabitants and the different needs of risk communication depending on their risk behaviour. Further expected results are to integrate insights to improve communication strategies to provide tailored information. This can additionally be applied to advance planning support systems in risk management strategies in order to move towards more flood resilient communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RiverCare is a 6 year Dutch research program that improves our fundamental understanding of river behavior for integrated flood risk management and collaborative maintenance. During-mid 2014 and December 2019, over 20 researchers from 5 universities have studied the hydro-morphological and ecological consequences of multiple river interventions that aim at reducing flood water levels and improving the spatial quality in Dutch rivers. As part of RiverCare, a multimedia strategy was developed to increase the accessibility of contributions and to get feedback from practitioners about the potential use of RiverCare (scientific) products in the Netherlands and abroad.The communication strategy is a joint effort between the RiverCare program (https://kbase.ncr-web.org/rivercare/) and the Netherlands Centre for River studies (NCR) (https://ncr-web.org/) to further discuss our work with the scientific and practical community and extend communication efforts after the program ends. The strategy includes an online knowledge-base that gives an overview about how methods and tools contribute towards more sustainable management. We use participatory methods for a user-centered design and carry out systematic evaluation to identify needs for improvement. Usability tests over the iterative design process were carried out with input of students and representatives of the intended audience who helped to improve the navigation and tailor content. The design aims to help users find out the most interesting project for their needs by means of an infographic, videos and an interactive map. For each project, researchers give an overview of their project outputs, innovative aspects and status for day-to-day practice while providing links to the storylines for practice, research outputs details including the supporting datasets. To increase the reach, RiverCare newsletters, blogs and news articles are being distributed through the NCR mailing list and other water platforms, both in the Netherlands as abroad.Systematic evaluation has been useful to tailor communication efforts and to give advice for other research programs in the field of environmental and risk management. Challenges are to reach a larger but interested audience to prove the effectiveness of our approach, to draw recommendations for improving current practices per main research themes and to explore the possibilities to further apply our results in other locations. Therefore, to hear and discuss the program's outcome, its implications and relevance, we will be inviting interested practitioners to explore our site, give feedback about their interests and register to the final RiverCare symposium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]