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Flood risk management requires to comprehensively assess how policy strategies may affect individuals and communities. However, policy development and implementation often downplay or even increase social inequality. Analysis of the social and societal implications of strategies and implementation projects to manage flood hazards is still in its infancy. To close this gap, this chapter critically questions the roles of social justice and their political implications for flood risk management with regard to resilience. The chapter discusses and argues how different theoretical concepts as well as different perspectives on justice (e.g. social, environmental and climate justice) and resilience in flood risk management are related. There is a strong need to have a broader and more in-depth discussion about the role of justice in the current resilience debate. Finally, the chapter presents the outline of a future research agenda.
Thomas Thaler. Justice and Resilience in Flood Risk Management: What Are the Socio-Political Implications? Building Resilience to Natural Hazards in the Context of Climate Change 2021, 41 -54.
AMA StyleThomas Thaler. Justice and Resilience in Flood Risk Management: What Are the Socio-Political Implications? Building Resilience to Natural Hazards in the Context of Climate Change. 2021; ():41-54.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Thaler. 2021. "Justice and Resilience in Flood Risk Management: What Are the Socio-Political Implications?" Building Resilience to Natural Hazards in the Context of Climate Change , no. : 41-54.
Flood risk management has developed a large inventory of potential actions to climate-related hazards. Within this wide array of measures, managed retreat of communities at risk is usually only taken into account if other strategies are ineffective or unavailable. Communities who are affected by managed retreat are confronted with radical changes in their livelihood. However, managed retreat is highly contested. The use of managed retreat includes not only the relocation of house owners but also has the challenge that it discriminates between landowners as some gain and others lose. Therefore, managed retreat raises issues of social justice. To mitigate the impact on land, compensation plays a crucial role in flood risk management. The level and kind of compensation varies between countries across the globe. In this paper, we compare two different policy compensation frameworks in two European countries: Austria and England. The comparative study shows how different compensation schemes affect social justice, both in terms of substantive distributions but also in terms of procedural justice.
Thomas Thaler. Just retreat—how different countries deal with it: examples from Austria and England. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 2021, 11, 412 -419.
AMA StyleThomas Thaler. Just retreat—how different countries deal with it: examples from Austria and England. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. 2021; 11 (3):412-419.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Thaler. 2021. "Just retreat—how different countries deal with it: examples from Austria and England." Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 11, no. 3: 412-419.
Mountains are highly sensitive to climate change. Their elevated areas provide essential ecosystem services both for the surrounding mountainous regions and particularly for adjacent lowlands. Impacts of a warmer climate affect these services and have negative consequences on the supply of water, on biodiversity and on protection from natural hazards. Mountain social-ecological systems are affected by these changes, which also influence communities' risk perception and responses to changing climate conditions. Therefore, to understand individual and societal responses to climate change in mountain areas, aspects and drivers of risk perception need to be scrutinised. This article presents the findings of a literature review of recent English language publications on risk perception in connection to climate change and related natural hazards in mountain regions worldwide. Studies were selected from recorded entries in JSTOR, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science covering the period 2000–2019 and analysed in two steps (structured exploratory analysis, n = 249 and in-depth analysis, n = 72) with respect to the studies' research question, methodology, geographical scope and risk perception drivers. The review reveals that socio-demographic factors, like gender, age and personal experiences, have a crucial impact on individual risk perception. Some of the less tangible but nevertheless decisive factors are important in mountain regions such as place attachment and socio-cultural practices. In conclusion, there is however little information in the literature which addresses the specific situation of risk perception in mountain areas and its influence on communities' responses to environmental changes. Further, we observed a strong gap concerning the integration of indigenous knowledge in risk perception research. Many studies overlook or oversimplify local knowledge and the cultural dimensions of risk perception. Based on these results, the paper identifies several gaps in research and knowledge which may influence the design of climate risk management strategies as well as on their successful implementation.
Stefan Schneiderbauer; Paola Fontanella Pisa; Jess L. Delves; Lydia Pedoth; Samuel Rufat; Marlene Erschbamer; Thomas Thaler; Fabio Carnelli; Sergio Granados-Chahin. Risk perception of climate change and natural hazards in global mountain regions: A critical review. Science of The Total Environment 2021, 784, 146957 .
AMA StyleStefan Schneiderbauer, Paola Fontanella Pisa, Jess L. Delves, Lydia Pedoth, Samuel Rufat, Marlene Erschbamer, Thomas Thaler, Fabio Carnelli, Sergio Granados-Chahin. Risk perception of climate change and natural hazards in global mountain regions: A critical review. Science of The Total Environment. 2021; 784 ():146957.
Chicago/Turabian StyleStefan Schneiderbauer; Paola Fontanella Pisa; Jess L. Delves; Lydia Pedoth; Samuel Rufat; Marlene Erschbamer; Thomas Thaler; Fabio Carnelli; Sergio Granados-Chahin. 2021. "Risk perception of climate change and natural hazards in global mountain regions: A critical review." Science of The Total Environment 784, no. : 146957.
Institutional vulnerability to natural hazards has not been thoroughly investigated until now. Yet, institutional vulnerability is strongly connected to all other vulnerability dimensions, and specific socio-economic and physical indicators. Moreover, different types of crises such as economic, political or health crisis strongly affect the institutional capacity of communities to deal with the consequences of natural hazards. For this reason, a deep insight to the institutional dimension of vulnerability is needed in order to reduce disaster risk under the effects of climate but also socio-economic change. In the present paper, institutional vulnerability is defined and its main pillars and drivers are identified. A framework is presented showing the interactions between the drivers of institutional vulnerability and the indicators of other vulnerability dimensions (physical, social, economic, cultural and environmental). The interactions between institutional vulnerability and other vulnerability dimensions are highlighted through three European case studies: Greece, the United Kingdom and Austria. The case studies show how current issues such as the recent financial crisis and Brexit, may directly influence the drivers of institutional vulnerability and consequently all other vulnerability dimensions. The framework and the case studies clearly indicate that institutional vulnerability is an "umbrella" dimension strongly related to all other dimensions and has to be approached as such in order to reduce vulnerability and, consequently, disaster risk.
Maria Papathoma-Köhle; Thomas Thaler; Sven Fuchs. An institutional approach to vulnerability: evidence from natural hazard management in Europe. Environmental Research Letters 2021, 16, 044056 .
AMA StyleMaria Papathoma-Köhle, Thomas Thaler, Sven Fuchs. An institutional approach to vulnerability: evidence from natural hazard management in Europe. Environmental Research Letters. 2021; 16 (4):044056.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaria Papathoma-Köhle; Thomas Thaler; Sven Fuchs. 2021. "An institutional approach to vulnerability: evidence from natural hazard management in Europe." Environmental Research Letters 16, no. 4: 044056.
Flood resilience (resilient flood risk management), which has been repeatedly demanded, can be achieved through the phases of the risk management cycle. There is a vast body of literature on adaptation, disaster risk reduction measures, and effectiveness of prevention, seen through the lens of postdisaster recovery, but oftentimes the existing literature seems to underestimate the impact of financial flood recovery schemes on resilient recovery of individual households in particular. This contribution focuses on how financial schemes for flood damage compensations—their sources, design, and timing—shape the resilience of recovery of individual households. It discusses the dilemma of recovery of whether recovery schemes should be used strategically to increase resilience, or rather serve early restoration needs, equality access issues, and so on. This contribution seeks to unify the current fragmented academic debate on household resilient recovery by focusing on the ambiguous role of financial recovery schemes. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Value of Water
Lenka Slavíková; Thomas Hartmann; Thomas Thaler. Paradoxes of financial schemes for resilient flood recovery of households. WIREs Water 2020, 8, 1 .
AMA StyleLenka Slavíková, Thomas Hartmann, Thomas Thaler. Paradoxes of financial schemes for resilient flood recovery of households. WIREs Water. 2020; 8 (2):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLenka Slavíková; Thomas Hartmann; Thomas Thaler. 2020. "Paradoxes of financial schemes for resilient flood recovery of households." WIREs Water 8, no. 2: 1.
Christian Diller; Martin Kohl; Thomas Thaler. German-Language Spatial Planning Research between Theory and Practice. Planning Practice & Research 2020, 1 -16.
AMA StyleChristian Diller, Martin Kohl, Thomas Thaler. German-Language Spatial Planning Research between Theory and Practice. Planning Practice & Research. 2020; ():1-16.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChristian Diller; Martin Kohl; Thomas Thaler. 2020. "German-Language Spatial Planning Research between Theory and Practice." Planning Practice & Research , no. : 1-16.
The frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events are expected to increase due to the effects of climate change and socio-economic development. Potentially higher flood risk, hence, triggered debate about a shift in flood risk management from mainly public to increasingly private involvement. So far, public flood mitigation schemes were standard modes to deal with flood hazards in many countries, including Austria. With high implementation and maintenance costs as well as substantial losses remaining, alternative management approaches have increasingly been discussed. This paper analyses the debate on shifting responsibilities in flood risk management from public to private actors and whether or not the current governance arrangement would accommodate this shift in the public-private divide. Based on qualitative research, we explicitly analyse this potential shift from an institutional perspective and not from the perspective of individual homeowners, taking the case study of Dornbirn (Austria) as an example. The results show that, firstly, the current governance arrangement hardly encourages property-level flood risk adaptation measures. Secondly, several factors stabilise the current governance arrangement and prevent a shift in the public-private divide. Although the need for an increased sense of responsibility among private actors seems to be evident among interviewees, strong historical narratives and adaptive expectations lead to a society seeing public authorities to be responsible for flood risk management and trust their expertise as well as the technical flood infrastructure. However, such areas of expertise and law are fragmented and therefore impede a redistribution or enforcement of responsibilities. Furthermore, fixed costs delay a shift in the public-private divide as the traditional engineering approach (i.e. structural measures) is predominant with high investments in the current system but limited investment in risk communication to raise awareness. Yet, a shift towards sharing responsibility might contribute to flood risk management for risks to remain manageable.
Magdalena Rauter; Maria Kaufmann; Thomas Thaler; Sven Fuchs. Flood risk management in Austria: Analysing the shift in responsibility-sharing between public and private actors from a public stakeholder's perspective. Land Use Policy 2020, 99, 105017 .
AMA StyleMagdalena Rauter, Maria Kaufmann, Thomas Thaler, Sven Fuchs. Flood risk management in Austria: Analysing the shift in responsibility-sharing between public and private actors from a public stakeholder's perspective. Land Use Policy. 2020; 99 ():105017.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMagdalena Rauter; Maria Kaufmann; Thomas Thaler; Sven Fuchs. 2020. "Flood risk management in Austria: Analysing the shift in responsibility-sharing between public and private actors from a public stakeholder's perspective." Land Use Policy 99, no. : 105017.
Strategic land use planning assumes a pivotal role in flood risk management. By using formal instruments, spatial planning can (i) legally secure areas for flood retention or other flood protection measures (hazard reduction) as well as (ii) regulate settlement development in hazard areas and ensure flood-adapted land uses (damage prevention). The interrelations between upstream and downstream riparian areas in flood risk management, however, require regional or catchment-oriented approaches in strategic land use planning to better coordinate land development options along rivers. This paper examines two strategic planning instruments in Austrian flood risk management. The two instruments – Blauzone Rheintal in Vorarlberg and Schutzwasserwirtschaftlicher Raumentwicklungsplan (SREP) in Carinthia – were developed by water authorities and spatial planning departments to prevent settlement growth in flood-prone areas and to secure land for flood protection schemes. Despite having similar problems in their backgrounds and objectives, the implementation processes of these instruments differ significantly: while the Blauzone Rheintal was formalized as a legally binding regional land use plan, the SREP was not developed beyond the pilot stage. This paper identifies important contextual conditions and lessons learned to facilitate the scaling-up and replication of catchment-oriented spatial planning instruments in other flood-prone regions.
Thomas Thaler; Ralf Nordbeck; Lukas Löschner; Walter Seher. Cooperation in flood risk management: understanding the role of strategic planning in two Austrian policy instruments. Environmental Science & Policy 2020, 114, 170 -177.
AMA StyleThomas Thaler, Ralf Nordbeck, Lukas Löschner, Walter Seher. Cooperation in flood risk management: understanding the role of strategic planning in two Austrian policy instruments. Environmental Science & Policy. 2020; 114 ():170-177.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Thaler; Ralf Nordbeck; Lukas Löschner; Walter Seher. 2020. "Cooperation in flood risk management: understanding the role of strategic planning in two Austrian policy instruments." Environmental Science & Policy 114, no. : 170-177.
A common assertion in discussions of flooding is that risk perception is critical and is linked to risk‐mitigating behavior. Furthermore, many assert that the adverse effects of floods could be reduced by changes in risk communication, thereby influencing risk perception to foster mitigating behavior. We argue that these assertions are based on quite questionable underlying assumptions: That stakeholders are generally aware of flood risk, that they have the capacity to engage in disaster risk reduction, and that their actions can be effective. The belief in and policies influenced by these three questionable assertions support, in turn, policies that shift responsibility for flood risk reduction onto individuals and homeowners, without regard for social and spatial justice issues. In contrast, we argue that context matters to understanding the complexity of the relation between flood risk perception and behavior, local power relations, and other constraints and opportunities that affect stakeholders. While the academic community has long played a pivotal role in supporting practical flood risk management, future research should take a more critical perspective on the underlying assumptions and focus on improving coordination across theories, methods, and variables, fostering comparative studies across disciplines, contexts, and scales. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented Science of Water > Water Extremes
Samuel Rufat; Alexander Fekete; Iuliana Armaş; Thomas Hartmann; Christian Kuhlicke; Tim Prior; Thomas Thaler; Ben Wisner. Swimming alone? Why linking flood risk perception and behavior requires more than “it's the individual, stupid”. WIREs Water 2020, 7, 1 .
AMA StyleSamuel Rufat, Alexander Fekete, Iuliana Armaş, Thomas Hartmann, Christian Kuhlicke, Tim Prior, Thomas Thaler, Ben Wisner. Swimming alone? Why linking flood risk perception and behavior requires more than “it's the individual, stupid”. WIREs Water. 2020; 7 (5):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSamuel Rufat; Alexander Fekete; Iuliana Armaş; Thomas Hartmann; Christian Kuhlicke; Tim Prior; Thomas Thaler; Ben Wisner. 2020. "Swimming alone? Why linking flood risk perception and behavior requires more than “it's the individual, stupid”." WIREs Water 7, no. 5: 1.
Within the wide array of adaptive responses to flood hazards, planned relocation of residents at risk is usually only taken into account if other responses are ineffective or unavailable. Residents targeted by planned relocation are confronted with radical changes in their livelihood; therefore, relocation is highly contested within public risk discourse. The present paper assesses dynamic processes in the design and implementation of voluntary planned relocation in the Austrian Danube catchment over five decades. Using the Multiple Streams Approach, the emergence of policy windows is mapped to developments in the problem, political, policy and population streams. A mixed-methods design combines semi-structured interviews of 88 affected households and 21 decision-makers with archival research. Repeated flood events underscored that standard protection did not suffice for all riverside communities. In consequence, national authorities acted as policy entrepreneurs to advocate planned relocation and direct the discourse; by contrast, local stakeholders and residents played a mostly passive role. The relocation policy developed from ad-hoc informal arrangements towards a formalised procedure. Relocation governance evolved as incremental change over a long time span instead of immediate, radical disruption. Policy acceptance by residents depended crucially on social learning and on coincidence with personal circumstances and biographical stages. Policy windows opened for several years, when pre-signals from ongoing public debate accumulated and the different timescales in the decision-making of public administrators, elected representatives and residents aligned. Key factors were long-term perspective, flexibility, engagement and social capacity at a local level to deal with and manage planned relocation.
Thomas Thaler; Sebastian Seebauer; Arthur Schindelegger. Patience, persistence and pre-signals: Policy dynamics of planned relocation in Austria. Global Environmental Change 2020, 63, 102122 .
AMA StyleThomas Thaler, Sebastian Seebauer, Arthur Schindelegger. Patience, persistence and pre-signals: Policy dynamics of planned relocation in Austria. Global Environmental Change. 2020; 63 ():102122.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Thaler; Sebastian Seebauer; Arthur Schindelegger. 2020. "Patience, persistence and pre-signals: Policy dynamics of planned relocation in Austria." Global Environmental Change 63, no. : 102122.
Forests have an important regulating function on water runoff and the occurrence of shallow landslides. Their structure and composition directly influence the risk of hydrogeomorphic processes, like floods with high sediment transport or debris flows. Climate change is substantially altering forest ecosystems, and for Central Europe an increase in natural disturbances from wind and insect outbreaks is expected for the future. How such changes impact the regulating function of forest ecosystems remains unclear. By combining methods from forestry, hydrology and geotechnical engineering we investigated possible effects of changing climate and disturbance regimes on shallow landslides. We simulated forest landscapes in two headwater catchments in the Eastern Alps of Austria under four different future climate scenarios over 200 years. Our results indicate that climate-mediated changes in forest dynamics can substantially alter the protective function of forest ecosystems. Climate change generally increased landslide risk in our simulations. Only when future warming coincided with drying landslide risk decreased relative to historic conditions. In depth analyses showed that an important driver of future landslide risk was the simulated vegetation composition. Trajectories away from flat rooting Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forests currently dominating the system towards an increasing proportion of tree species with heart and taproot systems, increased root cohesion and reduced the soil volume mobilized in landslides. Natural disturbances generally reduced landslide risk in our simulations, with the positive effect of accelerated tree species change and increasing root cohesion outweighing a potential negative effect of disturbances on the water cycle. We conclude that while the efficacy of green infrastructure such as protective forests could be substantially reduced by climate change, such systems also have a strong inherent ability to adapt to changing conditions. Forest management should foster this adaptive capacity to strengthen the protective function of forests also under changing environmental conditions.
Christian Scheidl; Micha Heiser; Sebastian Kamper; Thomas Thaler; Klaus Klebinder; Fabian Nagl; Veronika Lechner; Gerhard Markart; Werner Rammer; Rupert Seidl. The influence of climate change and canopy disturbances on landslide susceptibility in headwater catchments. Science of The Total Environment 2020, 742, 140588 .
AMA StyleChristian Scheidl, Micha Heiser, Sebastian Kamper, Thomas Thaler, Klaus Klebinder, Fabian Nagl, Veronika Lechner, Gerhard Markart, Werner Rammer, Rupert Seidl. The influence of climate change and canopy disturbances on landslide susceptibility in headwater catchments. Science of The Total Environment. 2020; 742 ():140588.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChristian Scheidl; Micha Heiser; Sebastian Kamper; Thomas Thaler; Klaus Klebinder; Fabian Nagl; Veronika Lechner; Gerhard Markart; Werner Rammer; Rupert Seidl. 2020. "The influence of climate change and canopy disturbances on landslide susceptibility in headwater catchments." Science of The Total Environment 742, no. : 140588.
Adaptive behaviour has become a crucial aspect in current flood risk management strategies across the globe, especially in response to potential consequences of flood hazards and facing challenges of climate change. There are several factors which influence the motivation to implement flood risk management strategies such as property-level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures. This paper assesses and evaluates the role of risk communication, which is a vital and overarching driver or barrier in the successful implementation of PLFRA measures. We explored this issue through a bootstrapped Q-methodology with 20 residents in the urban area of Graz, Austria, who have been affected by flood events in the past. Additionally, semi-structured interviews concerning risk communication were conducted with the participants to understand the preferred risk communication modes. The results show that respondents have a high level of perceived self-efficacy (most have implemented PLFRA measures), that there is general distrust in public protection measures and that there is a high understanding of residual risk. Considering the communication modes preferred by a majority of respondents, face-to-face interaction with unbiased experts is more attractive than online applications. Additionally, citizens want to be engaged in decision-making processes concerning public protection measures in their area. This calls for participatory processes in flood risk management which involve mutual knowledge transfer and social learning.
Marie-Sophie Attems; Matthias Schlögl; Thomas Thaler; Magdalena Rauter; Sven Fuchs. Risk communication and adaptive behaviour in flood-prone areas of Austria: A Q-methodology study on opinions of affected homeowners. PLOS ONE 2020, 15, e0233551 .
AMA StyleMarie-Sophie Attems, Matthias Schlögl, Thomas Thaler, Magdalena Rauter, Sven Fuchs. Risk communication and adaptive behaviour in flood-prone areas of Austria: A Q-methodology study on opinions of affected homeowners. PLOS ONE. 2020; 15 (5):e0233551.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarie-Sophie Attems; Matthias Schlögl; Thomas Thaler; Magdalena Rauter; Sven Fuchs. 2020. "Risk communication and adaptive behaviour in flood-prone areas of Austria: A Q-methodology study on opinions of affected homeowners." PLOS ONE 15, no. 5: e0233551.
Options for the increase of flood resilience during the recovery phase is, to a large extent, overlooked. The special issue Financial Schemes for Resilient Flood Recovery investigates how the implementation of financial schemes (government relief subsidies, insurance schemes, buy-outs, etc.) might increase flood resilience. Five papers address following questions: Shall government relief subsidies exist when there is flood insurance in place, and, if so, how might they both be coordinated? Where (or how) to decide about build back better incentives and where to go for planned relocation programs? What is the distributional equity of financial schemes for flood recovery, and has it been sufficiently treated?
Lenka Slavíková; Thomas Hartmann; Thomas Thaler. Financial schemes for resilient flood recovery. Environmental Hazards 2020, 19, 223 -227.
AMA StyleLenka Slavíková, Thomas Hartmann, Thomas Thaler. Financial schemes for resilient flood recovery. Environmental Hazards. 2020; 19 (3):223-227.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLenka Slavíková; Thomas Hartmann; Thomas Thaler. 2020. "Financial schemes for resilient flood recovery." Environmental Hazards 19, no. 3: 223-227.
Hydro-meteorological hazards annually lead to considerable economic losses worldwide. Property level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures have shown to decrease potential damages by floods and other hazards. However, such measures are often implemented inadequately, frequently because of lacking communication between public administration and homeowners. Thus, risk communication systems have been created by multiple actors, ranging from the government to private companies and insurance groups, which have the goal to communicate risks to homeowners and businesses in a tailored manner. Consequently, adaptive behaviour can be triggered by risk communication. This paper conducted a cross-comparison of several risk communication systems which encompassed an output in the shape of a label or guideline, based on semi-structured interviews with relevant experts. One system, the German Hochwasserpass, was focused on in more detail. The results show that risk communication systems should include participatory approaches with experts to trigger adaptive behaviour. However, even in an example including mutual knowledge transfer a gap between knowledge about mitigation measures and actually implementing them was present. Thus, this implies going a step beyond, which ultimately questions the resource efficiency of such risk communication systems on a larger scale.
Marie-Sophie Attems; Thomas Thaler; Karin A.W. Snel; Peter Davids; Thomas Hartmann; Sven Fuchs. The influence of tailored risk communication on individual adaptive behaviour. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 2020, 49, 101618 .
AMA StyleMarie-Sophie Attems, Thomas Thaler, Karin A.W. Snel, Peter Davids, Thomas Hartmann, Sven Fuchs. The influence of tailored risk communication on individual adaptive behaviour. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 2020; 49 ():101618.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarie-Sophie Attems; Thomas Thaler; Karin A.W. Snel; Peter Davids; Thomas Hartmann; Sven Fuchs. 2020. "The influence of tailored risk communication on individual adaptive behaviour." International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 49, no. : 101618.
Thomas Thaler. Book review: Water justice. Geographica Helvetica 2020, 75, 19 -21.
AMA StyleThomas Thaler. Book review: Water justice. Geographica Helvetica. 2020; 75 (1):19-21.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Thaler. 2020. "Book review: Water justice." Geographica Helvetica 75, no. 1: 19-21.
Recent policy changes highlight the need for citizens to take adaptive actions to reduce flood‐related impacts. Here, we argue that these changes represent a wider behavioral turn in flood risk management (FRM). The behavioral turn is based on three fundamental assumptions: first, that the motivations of citizens to take adaptive actions can be well understood so that these motivations can be targeted in the practice of FRM; second, that private adaptive measures and actions are effective in reducing flood risk; and third, that individuals have the capacities to implement such measures. We assess the extent to which the assumptions can be supported by empirical evidence. We do this by engaging with three intellectual catchments. We turn to research by psychologists and other behavioral scientists which focus on the sociopsychological factors which influence individual motivations (Assumption 1). We engage with economists, engineers, and quantitative risk analysts who explore the extent to which individuals can reduce flood related impacts by quantifying the effectiveness and efficiency of household‐level adaptive measures (Assumption 2). We converse with human geographers and sociologists who explore the types of capacities households require to adapt to and cope with threatening events (Assumption 3). We believe that an investigation of the behavioral turn is important because if the outlined assumptions do not hold, there is a risk of creating and strengthening inequalities in FRM. Therefore, we outline the current intellectual and empirical knowledge as well as future research needs. Generally, we argue that more collaboration across intellectual catchments is needed, that future research should be more theoretically grounded and become methodologically more rigorous and at the same time focus more explicitly on the normative underpinnings of the behavioral turn. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance Science of Water > Water Extremes
Christian Kuhlicke; Sebastian Seebauer; Paul Hudson; Chloe Begg; Philip Bubeck; Cordula Dittmer; Torsten Grothmann; Anna Heidenreich; Heidi Kreibich; Daniel F. Lorenz; Torsten Masson; Jessica Reiter; Thomas Thaler; Annegret H. Thieken; Sebastian Bamberg. The behavioral turn in flood risk management, its assumptions and potential implications. WIREs Water 2020, 7, 1 .
AMA StyleChristian Kuhlicke, Sebastian Seebauer, Paul Hudson, Chloe Begg, Philip Bubeck, Cordula Dittmer, Torsten Grothmann, Anna Heidenreich, Heidi Kreibich, Daniel F. Lorenz, Torsten Masson, Jessica Reiter, Thomas Thaler, Annegret H. Thieken, Sebastian Bamberg. The behavioral turn in flood risk management, its assumptions and potential implications. WIREs Water. 2020; 7 (3):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChristian Kuhlicke; Sebastian Seebauer; Paul Hudson; Chloe Begg; Philip Bubeck; Cordula Dittmer; Torsten Grothmann; Anna Heidenreich; Heidi Kreibich; Daniel F. Lorenz; Torsten Masson; Jessica Reiter; Thomas Thaler; Annegret H. Thieken; Sebastian Bamberg. 2020. "The behavioral turn in flood risk management, its assumptions and potential implications." WIREs Water 7, no. 3: 1.
Hydro-metrological events cause substantial economic damage and social disruption in our society to date. These climate-related risks will become even more severe in the future, driven by changes in the frequency and magnitude of natural hazard events, an increasing exposure of buildings or infrastructure, as well as vulnerability and resilience developments of residents and businesses. Although these long-term developments are of major social and economic relevance, decisions in disaster risk management and their (potential) impacts are typically assessed as singular events and potential alternative solutions, which have not been considered, are out of scope. Recent research therefore suggests to employ the concept of iterative climate risk management (CRM), in order to align disaster risk management and climate change adaptation policy and practice. This is supposed to increase the awareness of how complex and dynamic the challenge of comprehensively tackling climate-related risks is.
Pathways aims to fill this gap by analysing the long-term development of past and future decisions. The arenas in which these decisions are made are characterised by (1) competing interests from various policy areas, (2) ad-hoc decisions often taking precedence over strategic planning for long-term CRM, and (3) previous decisions providing carry-over, follow-up or creating even lock-in effects for later decisions. Focusing on two climate-adaptation regions in Austria (so-called KLAR!-regions), Pathways paints a comprehensive picture of how local adaptation pathways were developed in the past, how these pathways led to specific decisions at specific points in time, and which impacts these choices had on community development with respect to the choices and pathways not taken. Pathways learns from the past to inform the future with the aim to provide capacity building at the local level. By understanding how earlier decisions enabled or constrained the later decisions, pathways offers policy guidance for making robust decisions in local CRM.
Pathways applies a mixed-method approach to integrate quantitative and qualitative social science research methods and to triangulate the research objectives from different perspectives. Semi-structured interviews with key CRM actors at various levels of government, geo-spatial analysis, secondary analysis of census data and archival research jointly inform the reconstruction of past decision points and related pathways. This approach allows to test, compare, confirm, and control the collected data and the interpreted results from different perspectives, while avoiding narrow, oversimplifying explanations. Building on the lessons learnt from the past, future pathways are co-designed with local stakeholders in Formative Scenario workshops. Pathways restricts its scope to climate-related risks from extreme hydro-meteorological events and geological mass movements, such as riverine floods and pluvial torrents, mud and debris flow, landslides or avalanches. This risk domain requires governance structures for immediate response to the disaster as well as for prevention and relief/reconstruction. Pathways aims to improve the knowledge base for respective governance efforts.
Thomas Thaler; Philipp Babcicky; Christoph Clar; Thomas Schinko; Sebastian Seebauer. Learning from the past for strategic decision-making in climate risk management: Connecting historic and future adaptation pathways. 2020, 1 .
AMA StyleThomas Thaler, Philipp Babcicky, Christoph Clar, Thomas Schinko, Sebastian Seebauer. Learning from the past for strategic decision-making in climate risk management: Connecting historic and future adaptation pathways. . 2020; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Thaler; Philipp Babcicky; Christoph Clar; Thomas Schinko; Sebastian Seebauer. 2020. "Learning from the past for strategic decision-making in climate risk management: Connecting historic and future adaptation pathways." , no. : 1.
International and national laws promote stakeholder collaboration and the inclusion of the community in flood risk management (FRM). Currently, relocation as a mitigation strategy against river floods in Central Europe is rarely applied. FRM needs sufficient preparation and engagement for successful implementation of household relocation. This case study deals with the extreme flood event in June 2016 at the Simbach torrent in Bavaria (Germany). The focus lies on the planning process of structural flood defense measures and the small-scale relocation of 11 households. The adaptive planning process started right after the damaging event and was executed in collaboration with authorities and stakeholders of various levels and disciplines while at the same time including the local citizens. Residents were informed early, and personal communication, as well as trust in actors, enhanced the acceptance of decisions. Although technical knowledge was shared and concerns discussed, resident participation in the planning process was restricted. However, the given pre-conditions were found beneficial. In addition, a compensation payment contributed to a successful process. Thus, the study illustrates a positive image of the implementation of the alleviation scheme. Furthermore, preliminary planning activities and precautionary behavior (e.g., natural hazard insurance) were noted as significant factors to enable effective integrated flood risk management (IFRM).
Barbara Mayr; Thomas Thaler; Johannes Hübl. Successful Small-Scale Household Relocation after a Millennial Flood Event in Simbach, Germany 2016. Water 2020, 12, 156 .
AMA StyleBarbara Mayr, Thomas Thaler, Johannes Hübl. Successful Small-Scale Household Relocation after a Millennial Flood Event in Simbach, Germany 2016. Water. 2020; 12 (1):156.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBarbara Mayr; Thomas Thaler; Johannes Hübl. 2020. "Successful Small-Scale Household Relocation after a Millennial Flood Event in Simbach, Germany 2016." Water 12, no. 1: 156.
Hydrometeorological events are highly costly and have strong impacts on the human‐environment system. Effective response requires effective risk management concepts and strategies at individual and watershed level to increase community resilience. Focusing on flood risk and the information associated with it, individual risk behavior in the shape of implementing property‐level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures is often overlooked. For this research, a comprehensive overview of possible PLFRA measures for homeowners in flood risk areas was made, as well as the possible costs and technical feasibility for new and existing buildings. To complement this, insights into risk mitigation behavior are essential due to the ongoing shift to risk‐based and individualized flood risk management, which require a contribution from flood‐prone households to risk reduction. Results show that PLFRA measures differentiate in their effectiveness, cost‐efficiency and technical feasibility, and full protection can never be guaranteed. Considering risk mitigation behavior, literature generally distinguishes between situational factors (such as communication and economic subsidies) and personal factors (such as personal and psychological components influencing individual behavior). This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Science of Water > Water Extremes
Marie‐Sophie Attems; Thomas Thaler; Elisabetta Genovese; Sven Fuchs. Implementation of property‐level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures: Choices and decisions. WIREs Water 2019, 7, 1 .
AMA StyleMarie‐Sophie Attems, Thomas Thaler, Elisabetta Genovese, Sven Fuchs. Implementation of property‐level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures: Choices and decisions. WIREs Water. 2019; 7 (1):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarie‐Sophie Attems; Thomas Thaler; Elisabetta Genovese; Sven Fuchs. 2019. "Implementation of property‐level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures: Choices and decisions." WIREs Water 7, no. 1: 1.
Environmental change is subject to discussion among scientists, practitioners, and policymakers. As increasing threats to both environment and society are on the agenda, alternative management approaches are gaining importance. This paper focuses on the influence of policy changes on flood risk management. There is evidence that shifts in settlement patterns and population growth might influence the dynamics of flood damage and loss. There is increased pressure to intensify land use, but also to keep free spaces for hazard mitigation and adaptation. In this paper, we focus on new regulative and management approaches associated with the implementation of the European (EU) Floods Directive in Austria. The concept of tipping points, which are defined as turning points for system change, has been applied. Based on semi-structured interviews we evaluate whether or not the implementation of the EU Floods Directive has triggered a system change in flood risk management. Our results show that triggers for change are past flood events and a general need for action rather than the implementation of the directive itself. Changes related to the EU Floods Directive are likely to happen in the long-term; however, these cannot yet be determined. The main challenges are associated with transparency and communication between policymakers and the affected society. So far, the requirements of the first policy cycle of the directive have been fulfilled. The second policy cycle will show further outcomes and potential needs.
Magdalena Rauter; Thomas Thaler; Marie-Sophie Attems; Sven Fuchs. Obligation or Innovation: Can the EU Floods Directive Be Seen as a Tipping Point Towards More Resilient Flood Risk Management? A Case Study from Vorarlberg, Austria. Sustainability 2019, 11, 5505 .
AMA StyleMagdalena Rauter, Thomas Thaler, Marie-Sophie Attems, Sven Fuchs. Obligation or Innovation: Can the EU Floods Directive Be Seen as a Tipping Point Towards More Resilient Flood Risk Management? A Case Study from Vorarlberg, Austria. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (19):5505.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMagdalena Rauter; Thomas Thaler; Marie-Sophie Attems; Sven Fuchs. 2019. "Obligation or Innovation: Can the EU Floods Directive Be Seen as a Tipping Point Towards More Resilient Flood Risk Management? A Case Study from Vorarlberg, Austria." Sustainability 11, no. 19: 5505.