Ambition and reality in the climate resilience of residential buildings: A case study on flood reconstruction in Austria

Seebauer, S., Ellmer, H.P., & Thaler, T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3869-3722 (2025). Ambition and reality in the climate resilience of residential buildings: A case study on flood reconstruction in Austria. Climate Risk Management 50 e100762. 10.1016/j.crm.2025.100762.

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Abstract

Climate-resilient development pathways call for integration of climate change adaptation and mitigation; however, implementing climate resilience requires coordination between policy domains. Residential buildings may shed light on climate resilience, being vulnerable to climate-related natural hazards and contributing significantly to carbon emissions. We analyse how residential buildings in an Austrian peri-urban area after the 2013 Danube flood were reconstructed to be not just flood-proof but also energy efficient. Five main policy instruments and their underlying governance process are described and their outcomes are assessed using public statistics, interviews with 15 policy actors, streetside observation of 126 buildings and six ethnographic case stories of specific households. The policy instruments are uncoordinated and address only their own policy domain. Households remodel their buildings minimally after the flood. Transformation to climate resilience mostly occurs in new buildings that are no longer exposed to flooding and have to comply with building regulations. Overall, the ambitions for climate resilience put forward in policy strategies hardly manifest in the reality of the case study. Funding criteria for disaster aid and renovation subsidies should be adapted to incentivise both flood protection and energy efficiency. Local authorities could be intermediaries in the rollout of policy instruments.

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