Developing partnership approaches for flood risk management: implementation of inter-local co-operations in Austria

Abstract

This article relates how catchment-wide partnership agreements have been used in approaching flood risk management in Austria. Upstream-downstream co-operations are clearly influenced by a number of factors, where the combination of these interdependences can create specific conditions that alter the opportunity for effective governance arrangements in a local scheme approach. We present the motivations and drivers of the creation of inter-local co-operations in flood risk management, focusing especially on the main barriers and challenges. Although a partnership approach may be seen as an 'optimal' solution for flood risk management, in practice there are many limitations and barriers to establishing these collaborations.

Allocation of risk and benefits—distributional justices in mountain hazard management

“…The national government introduced to prioritise the investment based on cost-benefit analysis, where the highest benefit-cost ratio gets implemented first (Sinabell and Url 2007;BMLFUW 2009). One reason for this result is that the overall budget and the resource distribution over the federal states is mainly disaster-driven (Thaler 2014), which means that after major strikes investments for mitigation and adaptation are repeatedly shifted towards these federal states (Raschky and Weck-Hannemann 2007). However, the allocation of flood protection measures is equally distributed in terms of protection level and also in terms of funding between nine different federal states.…”

Neue gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen im Naturgefahrenmanagement: Welche Entwicklungen kommen auf uns zu?

“…Die Folge ist, dass insbesondere in Gemeinden ohne geeignete Entwicklungsgebiete ein extremer Nutzungsdruck entsteht, und diese im Spannungsfeld unterschiedlicher Landnutzungsansprüche stehen (Thaler 2014;Steinhäußer et al 2015).…”

Justice and flood risk management: reflecting on different approaches to distribute and allocate flood risk management in Europe

“…For flood risk management, egalitarianism posits that the distribution of flood risk management strategies and implementations should be addressed to the most vulnerable people and objectives, such as implementing flood storages in the upper part of the catchment principle to protect downstream communities (Johnson et al 2007;Thaler 2014). The key aim is to analyse the social capacity of individuals referring to flood risk management events (Gardoni and Murphy 2009).…”

“…Since the 1990s, the Austrian flood risk management has shifted slightly away from local flood protection schemes to a more holistic catchment management ideal (upstreamdownstream cooperations). The aim is to establish flood storages in the upper part of catchments to reduce vulnerability within the whole catchment instead of a local point (Thaler 2014;). In particular, downstream communities, which are more vulnerable within the catchment, benefit from this policy shift.…”

“…The directive requires that different scenarios be taken into consideration. This means that spatial planners, rather than considering one line of defence, must integrate various lines-this change moves the emphasis from security towards risk (Hartmann and Jüpner 2014;Thaler 2014). This has crucial consequences for the allocation of land use since it balances flood risk on a much more differentiated level, raising questions such as whether a commercial area might be inundated more often than a residential area or what might be the right level of protection for cultural heritage (Hartmann and Jüpner 2013).…”