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A. Schindelegger, S. Seebauer, T. Thaler:
"Planned relocation from Danube floodplains in Austria, Lessons learned from five decades of policy practice";
Global Report on Internal Displacement, 6 (2021), 10 pages.

Planned relocation for flood risk management is a grave intervention in people´s livelihoods and rarely conducted in the European context. An exemption is the Austrian scheme along the Danube river. It dates back to the 1970s and provides an exceptional long-term case study. The paper looks into the spatial context of relocation areas - exposure to flooding, past events - the development of a sophisticated governance scheme over time, the accu- mulation of pre-signals facilitating policy implementation, and the household choices and reactions once confronted with an offer to relocate. The research builds on a mixed- method approach combining document analysis and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and affected households to establish a comprehensive perspective of policy dynamics and decision-making processes. The paper concludes with policy recommendations on how to support affected households and residents and on how to improve governance arrangements.

planned relocation; spatial planning; Absiedlung; displacement