Natural Hazard Risk Governance is a rather new subject of scientific investigation. Therefore, there is a need for involving and empowering concerned people and institutions to take care of hazard prevention and handling events themselves.
Action Group 8 carried out a status quo analysis for risk governance in the field of natural hazard management.
The EU-Strategy for the Alpine Region aims generally to map governance processes and capacities within the EUSALP perimeter. AG8 started the mapping for natural hazards with a focus on risk governance. With the support of TU Wien the group members investigated the existing national regulatory frameworks in hazard management and mapped governance mechanisms that are already in place in a comparable manner. In a close cooperation with the Alpine Convention, were collected a series of good practices that led AG8 to identify and formulate recommendations for enhancing risk governance mechanisms concerning the management of natural hazards in the Alps.
The research cannot provide an holistic evaluation of governance mechanisms in all member States but rather a first mapping, based on the expertise of the members.
Finally, results and critical aspects were discussed within the group, adding to the study a comparative analysis of the responsibilities and capacities in the existing national management systems, as the basis for further projects and researches.
The final report “Natural Hazard Risk Governance Status Quo in the EUSALP Region” is available here.