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A. Kanonier:
"Nature Risk Management and Spatial Planning Activities in Austria";
Talk: AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning) Kongress, Neapel, Italien (invited); 2007-07-12.

Floods in 2002 and 05 in Austria showed that the risk for settlement areas increased considerably within the past few years. The limited settlement areas in the Alps, which are being used more and more intensively, are opposed to more severe and frequent damages. With this background mainly activities in the spatial planning sector will be of central importance as preventive measures. Primarily protection will be realized by restricting spatial use by excluding endangered areas from development. Mainly the municipalities are challenged to keep endangered areas free from building projects. Regional planning will also have to lay down corresponding - limiting - measures. These plans will have to be combined with active measures, for instance the determination and procedure of protective measures to eliminate danger.
Special challenges will result from measures concerning valid determinations of building land as well as buildings in endangered areas, especially because the possibility to intervene for existing buildings is quite limited. In this connection it is essential to combine all relevant decision-makers on municipal, regional and national levels, the sovereign measures, especially the distribution of grants for protecting buildings, must be agreed upon. Last but not least the appreciation of problems concerning natural dangers must be increased within the population, as the desire for building land in endangered areas remains high.