Natural hazards and burden of public costs

Austria is exposed in particular to natural hazards and there are hints that the risk exposition might increase in future years. Such natural disaster events cannot be predicted and often represent serious burden to the public budgets. Until now, available data concerning the extent of damages caused by natural hazards is still not sufficient. Only at federal level, total sums of damage compensation are well documented. Studies linking natural hazards and occurred damages are quite rare and exist most often only on local level for certain case studies. What is still missing is an overall assessment of spatial distribution of possible damages caused by natural hazards. Therefore, the comparison of expected damages with occurred damages on local level is of importance. The aim of this study is the assessment of damage data on local level as well as the creation of a data set comprising damages, economic development and prevention measures. This shall be the prototype for a new tool in order to quickly analyse damages also in the context of spatial planning.