Mountain hazards and Building Back Better (BBB) – focus on the Austrian Alps

Natural hazards cause often material damages and loss of life. Human efforts are concentrated not only on the time preceding the occurrence of a hazard (forecast, evacuation, response, land use planning and structural measures) but also during (response, emergency operations) and after the occurrence of a catastrophic process (reconstruction of damaged buildings and infrastructure). As far as the reconstruction phase in concerned, authorities and citizens tend to rebuild their houses and infrastructure in the same way and location they were before the hazard strikes. The present study outlines the reconstruction efforts of two municipalities and the changes that they made following a torrential event in order to increase their resilience to natural hazards and to reduce future loss.  In more detail, a physical vulnerability index is used to assess the Build Back Better (BBB) of two alpine villages in Austria that experienced significant damages during the event of 2005. The BBB is investigated at three levels: the municipal level (structural measures and land use changes), the building level (physical vulnerability index) and the community level (public awareness). At the building level, the vulnerability index used is based on a number of indicators (building characteristics) including the height of windows, the existence, material and height of surrounding walls, the orientation of the building and the shielding of neighboring structures. The index compares the pattern of the physical vulnerability of buildings for both municipalities in 2005 and in the present. Both villages have now completed the reconstruction process, however, a similar event in the future could still cause significant damage. Changes in the building design and development of local adaptation measures have decreased the physical vulnerability of some buildings, however, some others remain equally vulnerable.  Based on the investigation of the reconstruction process recommendations regarding local adaptation measures are presented.