EE-Con – Economic and Ethical Consequences of Natural Hazards in Alpine Valleys

02/2015 – 12/2018 (University of Graz, Departement for Geography and Regional Science)

Abstract

Due to steep topographical reliefs, high population density and the economic importance of summer and winter tourism, the Alps and their population are particularly vulnerable to geomorphological and hydrological hazards. This problem might be amplified by rising temperatures and more pronounced precipitation events due to climate change. Natural disasters cause severe monetary damage which often leads to the difficult question whether it socially pays to protect settlements at high costs or whether alternatively settlement areas should better be abandoned. By investigations in two alpine valleys in Styria, the Johnsbachtal and the Kleinsölktal, we will address the following questions within an interdisciplinary cooperation between geography, economics and philosophy:

(1) Are natural hazards and associated damages in fact increasing, and is this attributed to increasing meteorological triggers, to anthropogenic factors or to a cyclicity in internal process dynamics? How will these factors evolve in the future? (2) What is the perception and knowledge of local people on natural hazards in "their" valleys, how is risk and risk prevention communicated? (3) What is the respective cost ratio between protection infrastructure, soft measures of adaptation and other options (e.g. reduction of settlement area)? How does this ratio evolve over time, what are the implications for intertemporal adaptation decisions? (4) If losses cannot be avoided, what legitimate claims to compensation do people have both as individuals and as members of groups? How far does societal responsibility reach and where does individual responsibility start, if parts of the settlement area had to be abandoned?

Funding

Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)

Further information

EE-Con – Economic and Ethical Consequences of Natural Hazards in Alpine Valleys