ABSTRACT
Global climate change has drastic consequences on local geographies comprising frequent and severe extreme weather events such as heavy rainfalls, windstorms and downbursts resulting in flooding and landslides. Second home owners are considered as a vulnerable group to natural hazards which, in general, is a joint effect of the substantial capital allocated through owning a home and the immanent and value-creation features of the property, the natural amenities and landscape that are at risk due to climate change. Hence, the question arises as to whether second home owners are aware of the increasing number of extreme weather events occurring in their holiday area as well as of the related housing/living risks. As a consequence, two other questions arise: first, the types of coping strategies the owners employ to deal with extreme weather events and; second, the factors which determine strategy choices. The geographical setting of the study is the Żywiec Valley in the West Beskids Mountains of Southern Poland, a holiday-home hot spot and, at the same time, an area particularly vulnerable to various climate change effects, mainly shallow landslides due to high relative altitudes and predominance of deforested slopes, potentially causing floods in the immediate zone of local reservoirs.
