Mitigating mountain hazards in Austria – legislation, risk transfer, and awareness building

Abstract

Abstract. Embedded in the overall concept of integral risk management, mitigating mountain hazards is pillared by land use regulations, risk transfer, and information. In this paper aspects on legislation related to natural hazards in Austria are summarised, with a particular focus on spatial planning activities and hazard mapping, and possible adaptations focussing on enhanced resilience are outlined. Furthermore, the system of risk transfer is discussed, highlighting the importance of creating incentives for risk-aware behaviour, above all with respect to individual precaution and insurance solutions. Therefore, the issue of creating awareness through information is essential, which is presented subsequently. The study results in recommendations of how administrative units on different federal and local levels could increase the enforcement of regulations related to the minimisation of natural hazard risk. Moreover, the nexus to risk transfer mechanisms is provided, focusing on the current compensation system in Austria and some possible adjustments in order to provide economic incentives for (private) investments in mitigation measures, i.e. local structural protection. These incentives should be supported by delivering information on hazard and risk target-oriented to any stakeholder involved. Therefore, coping strategies have to be adjusted and the interaction between prevention and precaution has to be highlighted. The paper closes with recommendations of how these efforts could be achieved, with a particular focus on the situation in the Republic of Austria.

Mountain hazards: reducing vulnerability by adapted building design

“…Thus, judgements can be made about the appropriate balance between different management options. Apart from such academic concerns, methods to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards may include innovative approaches of risk sharing, as discussed in Holub and Fuchs (2009). Thereby, legislation, loss compensation, and risk transfer are accompanied by the overall aim to increase risk awareness and to implement a sustainable and long-term land use planning.…”

“…As a result, the resilience towards lowmagnitude and high-frequency events can be enhanced, leading to less economic vulnerability of values at risk exposed (Fuchs 2009). An increased economic resilience, in turn, will put a lesser burden on the public funds necessary, since due to missing overarching insurance systems in Austria the competence of compensating losses that incurred due to natural hazards is allocated on the level of federal states (Holub and Fuchs 2009).…”

“…As a consequence it may be postulated that risk awareness of the general public and administrative bodies responsible for hazard protection has risen (Commission of the European Communities 2007). Accordingly, the traditional engineering approach of mitigating hazard processes directly in the release areas of individual catchments, e.g., by designing snow rakes in avalanche starting zones and retention barriers in torrent Total costs of the prototype reinforced building ?8 channels, were supplemented by technical structures in the run-out areas, e.g., retention basins (Holub and Fuchs 2009). However, it had been shown that such structures have to be supplemented by passive mitigation concepts such as hazard mapping to reduce an exposure of elements at risk to hazards, a hypothesis that is rooted in very influential earlier works from the practitioners side (e.g., de Crécy 1980;Frutiger 1980;Hackett and Santeford 1980;Hestnes and Lied 1980;Ives and Plam 1980).…”

“…Sustainable mitigation strategies, as outlined by Holub and Fuchs (2009) in more detail, have to be pillared on a complementary multiplicity of risk treatment options acting upon the maxim of cost-efficiency in relation to the targeted expenditures and the aspired decrease in risk. Given the significance of these expenditures, risk-based appraisal of the costs and benefits (in terms of risk reduction) of major capital works is now customary in many alpine countries (Haering et al 2002;BMLFUW 2005BMLFUW , 2006.…”

Recurrent Governance Challenges in the Implementation and Alignment of Flood Risk Management Strategies: a Review

“…Measures found in the literature that could stimulate the implementation of flood-risk mitigation strategies include concluding voluntary multi-stakeholder agreements (De Moel et al 2009), encouraging responsibilities of local authorities (Thaler and Priest 2014) and stressing the local economic benefits of mitigation measures to the community (Holub and Fuchs 2009). In the aftermath of flood events, governments could use arising 'windows of opportunity' to make infrastructure and houses (more) flood-proof (Powell and Ringler 2009;Field et al 2012).…”