Project reports
Final project report to the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund
Journal articles
Thaler, T., Doorn, N., Hartmann, T. (2020). Justice of compensation for spatial flood risk management – comparing the flexible Austrian and the structured Dutch approach. DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin, 151 (2-3), DOI:10.12854/erde-2020-467.
In view of the anticipated climate change, many countries face increasing risks of flooding. Since the end of the 20th century, the traditional hard flood protection measures have been increasingly complemented with spatial flood risk reduction measures. These measures, though in the public interest and as such, benefitting many people, almost inevitably affect landowners adversely. In other words, spatial flood risk reduction measures affect private land. The impact may extend from mere decreases in property values as a result of changes to zoning plans and to obligations to tolerate certain acts related to the construction or maintenance of water defence structures. Most of the time, implementation of spatial flood risk reduction measures thus discriminates between landowners, as some profit from better protection but others are affected negatively by the measures. Spatial flood risk reduction measures thus raise issues of social justice. Compensation plays a crucial role in flood risk management to mitigate the impact on land. How and in which cases this compensation is paid differs from country to country. Some national jurisdictions compensate for loss as a result of lawful administrative acts if and to the extent that it is considered unreasonable for this loss to be the full responsibility of the affected party. In this paper, we compare two different legal compensation frameworks in two European countries: Austria and the Netherlands. Based on a comparative analysis, we discuss how these different compensation schemes affect social justice, both in terms of substantive distributions but also in terms of procedural justice.
Slavikova, L., Hartmann, T., Thaler, T. (2021). Paradoxes of financial schemes for resilient flood recovery of households. WIREs Water. DOI:10.1002/wat2.1497.
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.
Thaler, T. (2021). Just retreat – how different countries deal with it: examples from Austria and England. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. DOI:10.1007/s13412-021-00694-1.
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.
Babcicky, P., Seebauer, S., Thaler, T. (2021). Make it personal: Introducing intangible outcomes and psychological sources to flood vulnerability and policy. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. DOI:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102169. (formerly JustFair Working Paper No. 2)
Vulnerability assessments play a central role in deciding on measures for flood risk reduction. Vulnerability itself manifests as tangible (e.g. building damage) and intangible (e.g. distress, disruption of livelihoods) outcomes caused by a flood event. Traditionally, vulnerability assessments have been focusing on the physical and social sources that drive these outcomes, while psychological sources have largely been neglected. This paper expands the current physical and social perspective on vulnerability by demonstrating the added value of psychological sources to more accurately identify those who are most vulnerable to flooding. Based on survey data of 1,127 households living in flood-prone areas in Austria, we confirm that tangible and intangible outcomes represent conceptually distinct types of flood impacts. A series of hierarchical regression models shows that psychological sources do not play a critical role for tangible outcomes, as they do not significantly add to the variance already explained by physical and social indicators. However, psychological sources have substantial unique explanatory value for intangible outcomes, and may supersede certain physical indicators (e.g., risk zone is a physical proxy indicator for the underlying psychological factor ‘perceived flood probability’). By contrast, social indicators retain their effect size even if psychological indicators are included. Thus, expanding the scope of vulnerability outcomes calls for simultaneously expanding the scope of sources of vulnerability. The results caution against catch-all risk reducing measures; instead, risk managers should address the vulnerability sources specific to particular outcomes. To improve social equity, flood policy instruments should incorporate intangible outcomes and psychological sources of vulnerability.
Thaler, T. (2020). Anpassungsstrategien im Hochwassermanagement zwischen Gerechtigkeit und technischen Möglichkeiten. Wasser und Abfall, 22 (9), 13-16. DOI:10.1007/s35152-020-0258-x.
Das Hochwasserrisikomanagement unterliegt einer Vielzahl von verschiedenen Herausforderungen und Entwicklungen, die nicht immer ganz rasch und einfach hydrologisch-hydraulisch gelöst werden können. Durch den sozio-ökonomischen und demographischen Wandel der vergangenen Jahrzehnte hat sich nicht nur die Zusammensetzung der Gesellschaft verändert, sondern auch die Frage gewandelt, welche Ziele das Hochwasserrisikomanagement in der Gegenwart und in Zukunft verfolgen soll und kann.
Thaler, T. (2021). Umweltgerechtigkeit im alpinen Risikomanagement: Zielsetzungen und Handlungsmöglichkeiten in Österreich. Geographische Rundschau, 6-2021, 40-43.
Der Frage der Umweltgerechtigkeit kommt eine wichtige Rolle im Hochwasserrisikomanagement zu. Dabei besteht eine der größten Herausforderungen in der Beantwortung der Frage, wie Belange der Umweltgerechtigkeit berücksichtigt und im praktischen Hochwasserrisikomanagement auf Umsetzungsebene erreicht werden können. Der Beitrag zeigt am Beispiel von Österreich, wie das Hochwasserrisikomanagement massiv verändert wird, wenn die aktuelle Politik mit einem anderen Gerechtigkeitsverständnis ersetzt würde. Derartige Politik- und Perspektivwechsel hätten zur Folge, dass unterschiedliche Personen von Maßnahmen des Hochwasserrisikomanagements profitieren bzw. darunter leiden würden.
Thaler, T., Seebauer, S., Rogger, M., Dworak, T., Winkler, C. (2021). Erweiterung von Kosten-Nutzen-Analysen im Hochwassermanagement durch Berücksichtigung sozialer und psychologischer Verwundbarkeit. Österreichische Wasser- und Abfallwirtschaft. DOI:10.1007/s00506-021-00780-2.
Kosten-Nutzen-Analysen im Hochwassermanagement verwenden zur Beurteilung von Schutzkonzepten meist den physischen Schaden als Hauptkriterium. Dies kann zu einer ungleichen räumlichen Entwicklung führen, da in strukturschwachen Gemeinden meist weit geringere monetäre Werte gefährdet sind als in verdichteten Siedlungszentren. Der folgende Beitrag zeigt den Zusammenhang zwischen sozialer Gerechtigkeit und Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse und schlägt vor, wie strukturschwache Gemeinden besser in einem neuen Konzept der Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse abgebildet werden könnten, indem im Entscheidungsprozess soziale und psychologische Merkmale der Betroffenen mitberücksichtigt werden. Diese Erweiterung führt dazu, dass insbesondere Gemeinden in strukturschwachen Gebieten die Möglichkeit haben, einen Hochwasserschutz rascher umzusetzen. Mit diesem Beitrag möchten wir nicht nur die Bedeutung der sozialen und psychologischen Indikatoren im Hochwassermanagement aufzeigen, sondern auch, wie der Entscheidungsprozess in Zukunft gerechter gestaltet werden kann.
Babcicky, P., Seebauer, S. (2021). People, not just places: Expanding physical and social vulnerability indices by psychological indicators. Journal of Flood Risk Management. doi:10.1111/jfr3.12752. (formerly JustFair Working Paper No. 1) This article received the Best Paper Award 2022 of the Journal of Flood Risk Management.
Damage and disruption caused by floods do not just arise from the characteristics of physical structures, but also from the characteristics of residents inhabiting these structures. Social vulnerability analyses typically employ socio-demographic proxy indicators that do not address the risk attitudes, beliefs and agency of those living in areas at risk. To close this gap, this article introduces a range of indicators from psychological risk research. Physical, social and psychological indicators are compared for their influence on vulnerability outcomes such as building damage or emotional distress. Based on survey data of 456 Austrian at-risk households, hierarchical regression models confirm the added value of psychological indicators for measuring vulnerability above and beyond traditional physical and social indicators. Our findings show that psychological indicators are particularly important for explaining health impacts and distress. General intentions for flood preparedness, fear of flooding and self-efficacy are most relevant. For a more holistic view of vulnerability, measurement instruments should incorporate psychological indicators. Disaggregated household-level data is necessary to fully capture the variability between households living in the same flood-prone area. Indicators perform differently depending on the other indicators included, and the considered outcome; therefore, we caution against pooling indicators to composite indices of overall vulnerability.
Winkler, C., Thaler, T., Seebauer, S. (2022). The interplay between enterprise and entrepreneur in the flood risk management of small and medium sized enterprises in Austria. Environmental Hazards. doi:10.1080/17477891.2021.2023454. (formerly JustFair Working Paper No. 3)
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of most economies across the globe. They are particularly vulnerable to floods because they typically have less structural adaptation measures and less resources and financial access for recovery than large companies. In SMEs, economic and personal interests in risk governance intersect, such as when business crises after flood impacts spill over to personal crises of entrepreneurs. Applying a qualitative research method comprising policy document analysis, interviews and workshops with 11 flood-affected owner-entrepreneurs and 10 local and federal experts, the paper analyses SMEs in the manufacturing sector in Austria. SME vulnerability and coping capacity emerge from the close interaction of (1) the governance framework, foremost the public disaster compensation scheme; (2) enterprise-oriented factors, e.g. availability of capital, customer loyalty, labour force flexibility; and (3) entrepreneur-oriented factors, e.g. psychological resilience, social networks, political efficacy. SMEs merit special consideration in disaster risk management, therein accounting for the interplay of enterprise- and entrepreneur-oriented factors. Flood risk managers could introduce mentoring by flood-experienced entrepreneurial peers, consolidate informal local business and political networks, train risk competences of entrepreneurs, and promote private insurance.
Thaler, T., Seebauer, S. (2022). Wie kann soziale Gerechtigkeit im Hochwasserrisikomanagement umgesetzt werden? Eine Gegenüberstellung von Gerechtigkeitskonzepten und Umsetzungspraxis in England und Österreich. Wasser Energie Luft, 1/2022, 33-38.
In den vergangenen Jahren erfolgte in Europa ein Wandel des Hochwasserrisikomanagements. Eine der Hauptursachen waren die massiven ökonomischen Verluste aufgrund von zahlreichen Hochwasserereignissen. Die öffentliche Hand erkannte, dass es immer schwieriger wird, einen umfassenden Hochwasserschutz für alle Haushalte und Betriebe zu gewährleisten. Dies führte zu einer Verschiebung der politischen Zielsetzung von der Gefahrenabwehr hin zum Risikomanagement, in dem die private Eigenvorsorge eine stärkere Rolle spielt. Die Beschränkung öffentlicher Schutzmaßnahmen erfordert aber Kriterien, was (oder vielmehr wer) vor Überschwemmungen geschützt werden soll und wer sich selbst schützen muss. Welche Verteilungskriterien sozial gerecht sind und welche nicht, dafür gibt es unterschiedliche und sich teilweise widersprechende theoretische Konzepte. Dieser Beitrag veranschaulicht, wie verschiedene europäische Länder soziale Gerechtigkeit im Hochwasserrisikomanagement verfolgen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen teils deutliche Unterschiede in den jeweiligen Strategien. Damit soll der Beitrag eine Debatte anstoßen, welche Zugänge für soziale Gerechtigkeit im Hochwasserrisikomanagement in welchen Kontexten möglich und umsetzbar sind.
Book chapters
Thaler, T. (2021). Justice and resilience in flood risk management: what are the socio-political implications? In: Hutter, G., Neubert, M., Ortlepp, R. (eds.): Building resilience to natural hazards in the context of climate change – knowledge integration, implementation, and learning. Wiesbaden: Springer.
Flood risk management governance requires one to comprehensively assess how policy strategies may affect individuals and communities. However, policy development and implementation often downplay or even increase social inequality based on decisions. 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 paper critically questions implementation practices and options for flood risk management, such as Nature-based Solutions (Nbs) to increase community resilience; at the same time, this paper provides unintended outcomes, such as the implementation of green spaces acting as a trigger for gentrification processes and social inequalities in access to public services. The paper furthermore discusses and presents how justice and resilience in flood risk management are related and it illustrates an outline for future research agendas.