Living with natural hazards

The picture shows a wooded slope in the middle of which a mudslide has descended
Photo: die.wildbach

In Austria, many inhabited areas are affected by natural hazards. Floods, mudflows, avalanches or rockfalls are dangerous to humans and can damage the environment, properties, and economic assets.

The main com­po­nents favour­ing or pre­vent­ing the de­vel­op­ment and emergence of hazard events are the rel­e­vant nat­ural con­di­tions, such as cli­mate, rocks, soil, veg­e­ta­tion, and water bal­ance.

Nat­ural haz­ards are nat­ural events. They be­come a risk when either people or property are hurt or dam­aged.

In Aus­tria, nat­ural haz­ards often occur due to the move­ment of water, snow, ice, earth and rock masses, or wood at the earth’s sur­face. Cer­tain nat­ural haz­ards may occur swiftly and with­out warn­ing and can have enormous de­struc­tive power.

The pro­tec­tion against nat­ural haz­ards is a task handled and managed by the state (Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment, Provinces and mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties) and is im­ple­mented by the Fed­eral Water En­gi­neer­ing Au­thor­ity and the Ser­vice for Flood and Avalanche Con­trol. These in­sti­tu­tions pre­pare haz­ard zone plans and study the im­pacts of nat­ural haz­ards on res­i­den­tial areas, in order to de­ter­mine the lim­its of build­ing ac­tiv­i­ties in these areas.

They im­ple­ment for­est-bi­o­log­i­cal and con­struc­tional con­trol mea­sures where this is tech­ni­cally, en­vi­ron­men­tally, and fi­nan­cially prac­ti­ca­ble.

Despite these precautions, there remain no guaranteed protective measures against nat­ural haz­ards.