Mass Movement Processes Under Changing Climatic and Socioeconomic Conditions - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 19

Chapter 3
Mass Movement Processes Under
Changing Climatic and Socioeconomic
Conditions

Karl Hagen and Peter Andrecs

Abstract In recent years, natural hazards have caused increasingly damages to
infrastructure and human beings in the alpine regions. At the same time, the global
mean temperature is rising but in case of mass movement processes, there exists no
direct connection between these two facts. It is not evident, that global rising tem-
peratures will intensify the triggering effect of extreme precipitation everywhere.
This will probably vary spatially. Adverse socioeconomic development has brought
about the increase of real values. The impact of unsustainable land use has often
caused higher susceptibilities. Even without adverse “Climate Change Effects”, the
risks due to natural hazards will increase in the future as a consequence of socioeco-
nomic development. Hence, databases and methods of hazard and risk assessment
have to be updated and improved.

Keywords Landslides · Climate change · Socioeconomic change · Hazard

assessment · Risk assessment

3.1 Introduction

In recent years, in Austria and in adjacent countries, natural hazards such as
mass movement processes have increasingly caused damages to infrastructure,
settlements and human beings. Is this caused by an increase in extreme precipitation
events or is socioeconomic development responsible for this phenomenon? Which
measures on the international, national, regional and local level are required
to reduce these adverse effects? Based on local investigations in Austria, some