This PhD summer school focuses on climate change adaptation and flood recovery, with a particular emphasis on strengthening long-term resilience in both urban and rural areas. Floods are among the most disruptive climate-related hazards in Europe, and recent events have shown that flood recovery involves not only technical reconstruction but also broader questions of planning, governance, and long-term resilience.
The summer school uses flood-affected regions as learning environments to examine how recovery decisions are made and how they shape future vulnerability. Drawing on experiences from recent flood disasters, including the Ahr Valley in Germany, the summer school explores what build back better means in practice. Participants will discuss challenges related to land use, reconstruction, governance, and planning, and reflect on how recovery strategies can reduce existing vulnerabilities rather than reproduce them.
The summer school offers a collaborative, transdisciplinary learning environment combining field visits, interactive workshops, and facilitated discussions with experts and regional stakeholders. Participants will compare recovery approaches, reflect on land use and governance challenges, and co-produce knowledge that bridges science and practice. Jointly organized by RPTU Kaiserslautern, TU Dortmund University, and IQIB Germany, the event brings together up to 12 PhD students and practitioners from local administrations, infrastructure operators, and civil protection agencies to engage with flood recovery challenges from multiple perspectives. The aim is to foster mutual learning across science and practice and to support participants in developing critical, context-sensitive perspectives on flood recovery and resilience-building.
The event is linked with TERRAenVISION conference 2026 (https://terraenvision.eu/).
What to expect
With mentoring from experienced scholars in the field, this intense summer school provides a unique opportunity to develop this important and often overlooked niche in the risk cycle.
The research of the summer school will focus on three specific subjects:
- Challenges of recovery from spatial planning perspective
- Motivation versus incentives: private land and flood recovery
- After the flood and recovery: became the affected region more resilient?
Organisation and Scientific Committee
- Dr. Robert Juepner, Dr. Martin Fabisch (RPTU Kaiserslautern University)
- Dr.-Ing. Thomas Hartmann, Ayça Ataç-Studt (TU Dortmund University)
- Bert Droste-Franke, Tanja Nietgen (IQIB, Germany)
- Daniel Gronwald, Patrick Tarrach (THW – German Technical Relief Service)
- Stefan Frank (DB Infra GO – German Railway)
Venue and Contact Information
IQIB – Institute for Qualitative Industrial and Infrastructure Research Kurgartenstraße 1, 53474 Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany.
The venue is located in the Ahr Valley region, approximately 30 km south of Bonn and 50 km north of Koblenz. It can be reached easily by train or car from Cologne, Bonn, or Frankfurt. The venue is in reach of Cologne Airport.
Program
September 10th, 2026 – Excursion “Learning on Site in the Ahr Valley”
We will visit the Ahr valley, which was heavily affected by the Flood disaster in July 2021. The thematic focus will concentrate to resilient recovery of critical infrastructure, taking the example of transport and waste water treatment. German Railway (Deutsche Bahn) will show us examples of resilient recovery measures of their regional train system. The waste water treatment plan in the city of Sinzig will serve of an example of long-term temporaries [SCHAUM et. al., 2025]. In addition to that, the German Technical Relief Service (THW) will host us for a get together in the evening and present their experience in flood emergency management. The excursion provides practical insights into recovery processes and creates opportunities for direct exchange with local stakeholders.
| 10 Sept | 08:30 – 09:00 | Meeting and starting to the guided tour |
| 09:00 – 10:30 | Guided tour of the historic Kreuzberg railway station (Altenahr) | |
| 10:30 – 11:30 | Visit to the newly constructed railway line at Mayschoß | |
| 11:30 – 13:00 | “Bunte Kuh” viewpoint in Walportzheim | |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch break | |
| 14:00 – 15:30 | Town walk focusing on reconstruction efforts | |
| 15:30 – 17:00 | Guided tour of the Sinzig wastewater treatment plant | |
| 17:00 – 18:00 | Visit to the THW local branch in Sinzig | |
| 18:00 – 21:00 | Get together and joint barbeque | |
| 21:00 | Return journey |
September 11th, 2026 – Ph.D. Workshop in Bad Neuenahr Ahrweiler
The Ph.D. workshop will focus at 9 am on the research question: “Build Back Better – How to Learn from Flood-Affected Regions?”
Hosted by IQIB, a subsidiary of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), we will start the workshop reflecting the most important findings of the excursion. Together with local stakeholders and facilitators, sub-topics will be discussed in groups by Ph.D-students.
After lunch, the main results will be presented. A final discussion with the broad auditorium will follow, before a short round summarize the main findings.
A small farewell dinner will be served at 5 pm.
Personal transfer from Trier (TERRAenVISION Conference 2026) to Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler (Land4Flood – Summer School excursion):
By car: Trier → A1 → A48 → A61 → Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler approx. 1 hour 45 minutes
By train: from Trier via Koblenz and Remagen to Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler approx. 3 hours
Fees
There will be no summer school fee. It is expected, that the participants will cover their travelling expenses to the venue as well as the hotel.
How to apply:
If you are interested in intensively participate in the Land4Flood summer school please write a short application with
- Your cv
- PhD. research topic and actual status and
- Motivation
to Prof. Dr. Thomas Hartmann (TU Dortmund University): summerschool.land4flood@gmail.com
Information:
Further Information will be announced at our webpage. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact:
Prof. Dr. Robert Jüpner (RPTU Kaiserslautern): robert.jeupner@rptu.de