Dr. Franziska Stefanie Hanf
Research Associate
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Dr. Franziska Stefanie Hanf is a Research Assistant at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) at GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, where she has been working since February 2026 in the Research Group „Systemic Risks" as part of the EU Horizon Project "Disaster Resilience for Extreme Climate Events providing Interoperable Data, Models, Communication and Governance" (DIRECTED). Before joining RIFS, Franziska Stefanie Hanf worked as a Research Assistant at the Cluster of Excellence 'Climate, Climatic Change, and Society' (CLICCS) at the University of Hamburg, and Project Coordinator of the CLICCS project 'Sustainable Adaptation Scenarios for Urban Areas – Water from Four Sides' until the end of 2025.
Franziska Stefanie Hanf's research focuses on complex socio-ecological systems and the relationship between climate change adaptation and sustainable societal transformations in urban areas. Her research aims to contribute to a context-sensitive understanding of the complex, multi-level challenges of climate change adaptation, the role of knowledge systems, justice issues, and collaborative, institutional and governance mechanisms, as well as possible adaptation pathways toward sustainable transformations. She is interested in inter- and transdisciplinary approaches on assessing the plausibility of sustainable adaptation in cities (i.e., adaptation aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals), imaginaries of climate change adaptation and measuring climate change adaptation effectiveness using co-creative mixed-methods, system thinking, participatory system dynamics modeling, leverage points perspective and scenario explorations.
Franziska Stefanie Hanf studied 'Meteorology' at the Freie Universität Berlin, and received her PhD in 'Climate Physics' from the University of Potsdam in 2016 on the topic of the South Asian summer monsoon variability: a modelling study with the atmospheric regional climate model HIRHAM5. From 2016-2018, she worked as a Postdoc at the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at University of Hawaii, U.S.A., on simulating and understanding the representation of monsoon precipitation processes in global climate models.
Groups
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02/2026-present: Research Associate; Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) at GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany. Research Group: "Systemic Risks"; Project: "Disaster Resilience for Extreme Climate Events providing Interoperable Data, Models, Communication and Governance" (DIRECTED), EU Horizon Project.
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02/2026-present: Visiting Scholar; University of Hamburg, Department of Earth System Sciences, Hamburg, Germany. Guest agreement (unpaid).
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07/2019-12/2025: Senior Researcher and Project Coordinator; University of Hamburg, Atmospheric Science, Hamburg, Germany. Project: "Sustainable adaptation scenarios for urban areas - Water from four sides" in the Cluster of Excellence "Climate, Climatic Change, and Society" (CLICCS).
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02/2019-03/2019: Research Assistant; Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Research Unit Potsdam | Climate Sciences, Potsdam, Germany.
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04/2016-11/2018: Postdoctoral Fellow; International Pacific Research Center (IPRC), School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA. Project: U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) project "Coupled Processes that Determine the Basic States of Tropical Indian Ocean Sea Surface-Temperature (SST) and Asian Monsoon Precipitation".
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10/2015-12/2015: Research Assistant; Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Research Unit Potsdam | Climate Sciences, Potsdam, Germany.
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10/2015–11/2015: Visiting Scholar; International Pacific Research Center (IPRC), School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA.
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09/2014–12/2014: Predoctoral Visiting Fellow; International Pacific Research Center (IPRC), School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA. Advisor: Prof. Dr. H. Annamalai
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06/2012–09/2015: Doctoral Candidate/Research Assistant; University of Potsdam. German Research Foundation (DFG) Programme: Research Training Group 1364 "Shaping the Earth’s Surface in a Variable Environment – Interactions between tectonics, climate and biosphere in the African-Asian monsoonal region". Working at Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Research Unit Potsdam | Climate Sciences, Potsdam, Germany.
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08/2010-12/2010: Exchange Student; Universitetet i Bergen, Bergen, Norway; ERASMUS Exchange Programme.
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10/2009-05/2012: Master Student - Meteorology; Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
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10/2006-09/2009: Bachelor Student - Meteorology; Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
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Climate change adaptation and sustainable transformations
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Urban socio-ecologial system interactions
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Imaginaries of climate change adaptation
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Measuring climate change adaptation effectiveness
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System thinking and system dynamics modeling
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Multi-risk and vulnerability assessments
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Inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches
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Participatory, art-based and creative methods
Publications at the RIFS
Publications prior to joining the RIFS
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Santos, A. P., S. D. Angeli, F. S. Hanf, C. Mirbach, N. van Maanen, V. Benson, M. C. de Ruiter, A. Dunant, S. Terzi, P. -J. Schweizer, T. M. N. Carvalho, M. M. de Brito, K. D. Polt, R. Š. Trogrlić, and M. van den Homberg. Workshop report—Vulnerability in multi-hazard risks: Addressing its complexity and dynamics. 2026, p. 115250. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.115250.
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Hanf, F.S., Ament, F., Boettcher, M., Burgemeister, F., Gaslikova, L., Hoffmann, P., Knieling, J., Matthias, V., Meier, L., Pein, J., Poschlod, B., Quante, M., Ratzke, L., Rudolph, E., Scheffran, J., Schlünzen, K. H., Shokri, N., Sillmann, J., Vogelbacher, A., von Szombathely, M., Wickel, M. (2025). Towards a socio-ecological system understanding of urban flood risk and barriers to climate change adaptation using causal loop diagrams. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 17 (1), 69–102.
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Hanf, F.S., Meier, L., Hawxwell, T., Oßenbrügge, J., Knieling, J. and Sillmann, J. (2024). “Narrative images” as a learning approach: (transformative) adaptation scenarios for dealing with urban water risks in Hamburg, Germany. Front. Sustain. Cities, 6, 1430257.
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Hanf, F. S., Knieling, K., von Szombathely, M., Wickel, M., Oßenbrügge, J., Schlipf, S. and Sillmann, J. (2024). Hamburg, Germany. In: Engels, A.; J. Marotzke; B. Ratter; E. G. Gresse; A. López-Rivera; A. Pagnone; J. Wilkens (eds.); 2024. Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook 2024. Conditions for Sustainable Climate Change Adaptation. Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS), pp. 104-108. transcript Verlag, Bielefeld.
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Gresse, E.G., Schrum, C., Hanf, F.S., Jantke, K., Pein, J. Hawxwell, T. Hoffmann, P., Bolaños, T.G., Langendijk, G.S., Schneider, U.A., Huang-Lachmann, J.-T., Neuburger, M., Umaña, C.R., Seiffert, R., Wickel, M., Sillmann, J., Scheffran, J., Held, H. (2023). Toward a Sustainable Adaptation Plausibility Framework. In: Engels, A., Marotzke, J., Gresse, E.G., López-Rivera, A., Pagnone, A., Wilkens, J. (eds.); 2023. Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook. The plausibility of a 1.5°C limit to global warming - Social drivers and physical processes, Hamburg, Germany.
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von Szombathely, M., Hanf, F.S., Bareis, J., Meier, L., Oßenbrügge, J., Pohl, T. (2023). An Index-Based Approach to Assess Social Vulnerability for Hamburg, Germany. Int. J. Disaster Risk. Sci., 14, 782-794.
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Hanf, F.S., and H. Annamalai (2020). Systematic errors in South Asian monsoon precipitation: Process-based diagnostics and sensitivity to entrainment in NCAR models. J. Climate, 33 (7), 2817-2840.
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Hanf, F.S., H. Annamalai, A. Rinke, and K. Dethloff (2017). South Asian summer monsoon breaks: Process-based diagnostics in HIRHAM5. J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 122 (9), 4880-4902.
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Hanf, F.S., J. Körper, T. Spangehl, and U. Cubasch (2012). Shifts of climate zones in multi-model climate change experiments using the Köppen climate classification. Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 21 (2), 111-123.
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02/2026 Keynote "Climate adaptation scenarios for the City of Hamburg – Insights from project 'Hamburg 2050: Water from 4 Sides'", General Assembly Meeting - EU Horizon Project 'JustSafe', Hamburg, Germany.
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11/2025 Keynote "Hamburg im Jahr 2050: Wie wollen wir gemeinsam mit Wasserrisiken umgehen?", Sustainability Week Action Lab, Workshop "Sponge City: Between urban densification and adaptation to climate change", Hamburg, Germany.
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01/2024 Keynote "A socio-ecological system understanding of urban flood risk and barriers to climate adaptation under climate change - A case study of the city of Hamburg", Workshop: Urban development climate justice in a warmer world, Univeristy of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
- 2025 Invitation to participate as a Speaker in the Adaptation Fund’s "Innovation Spotlight". Innovation Spotlight 2 "Cityscapes and Seascapes: Blueprints for Resilient Living", Christchurch, New Zealand.