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Time and again, disastrous floods threaten regions and the people living there, their belongings and the basis of their existence. Flood risks, causes and consequences recently regained public awareness not least from the major floods in the European basins of the Oder, the Tisza and the Elbe as well as from the disasters in New Orleans, Bangladesh or Indonesia during the 1990s and early 2000s. It would appear that just as measures of technical defence (ie dikes, walls etc.) had been elevated, greater material losses also incurred. Our work is based on the assumption that flood hazard mitigation as well as a sustainable and participative development of floodplains is only feasible when the perspective of the people living in flood-prone areas, their risk perceptions and behaviour are known, taken into consideration and accepted.