The Arbeitskreis Naturgefahren und Naturrisiken is the official German name of the Working Group on Natural Hazard Risk of the German Geographical Society (DGfG). In its English-language communication, the group refers to itself as the Working Group on Natural Hazard Risk.

Since its inaugural meeting in 1997, the Working Group on Natural Hazard Risk of the German Geographical Society (DGfG) has provided an open forum for exchange among researchers, students, and practitioners engaged in the study of natural hazards and risk. The Working Group promotes critical discussion, conceptual development, and methodological innovation in hazard and risk research.

The Working Group uses a systemic and integrative perspective that brings together approaches from physical and social geography as well as inter- and transdisciplinary hazard research. Natural hazards and risks are understood as phenomena emerging from coupled human–environment systems, shaped by interactions between physical processes, societal structures, governance arrangements, and cultural practices across spatial and temporal scales.

Risk is commonly conceptualized as the dynamic interaction of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. It is increasingly complemented by perspectives on resilience, adaptive capacity, and transformation. A comprehensive understanding of natural hazard risk therefore requires close collaboration between the natural and social sciences, as well as engagement with actors beyond academia.

Research from physical geography addresses geological, pedological, climatological, hydrological, and geomorphological processes and their dynamics under global environmental and climate change. Social and human–environment perspectives examine how societies perceive, govern, and respond to risks, including analyses of exposure, vulnerability, risk perception, communication, institutions, and power relations. Rather than treating natural and social dimensions separately, the AK emphasizes the co-production of risk, interactions and feedbacks between environmental change and societal decision-making.

The Working Group actively promotes transdisciplinary approaches, fostering dialogue with policy-makers, practitioners, and affected communities to support socially robust and context-sensitive strategies for risk reduction, adaptation and enhanced resilience.

The working group is an open forum for

•           Scientists and students from universities and research institutions

•           Government agencies and institutions

•           Private service providers (planners, insurers, etc.)

•           Private individuals

To register for our email distribution list or send inquiries, please contact the spokespersons listed under “Contacts.”

The objectives of the working group are

•           To promote interdisciplinary exchange

•           To apply and implement novel research findings in natural hazard and natural risk research

•           To provide a discussion forum for methodological, empirical and theoretical questions

•         To encourage dialogue between science and practice

•           To ensure internal communication and information (events, projects, networks) and to conduct public relations work (press, contributions to the VGDH geography newsletter, etc.)

The working group meets once a year and welcomes all interested parties.