ABSTRACT
In the field of disaster risk management, a large inventory of adaptive responses to climate-induced and socio-economically driven hazards has been developed. Although this inventory comprises a wide array of structural and non-structural measures, planned relocations of at-risk residents are usually only taken into account if other adaptation strategies are ineffective or unavailable. Despite its obvious effectiveness in permanently reducing vulnerability, relocation is highly contested in the public risk discourse. The chapter selected the study site of the Machland region in Austria to analyse and to assess the use of relocation as an adaptation strategy in flood risk management. The relocation scheme is voluntary, with the authorities offering to buy out property at its estimated market value. Although the relocation strategy comprises one of the most effective adaptive responses to the flood hazard challenge, this adaptive response is highly contested (legally, socially and economically). People who are affected by relocation are confronted with profound changes in their livelihoods; in particular, they must overcome emotional attachment to the home they left behind and adapt to a new residence as well as re-building a neighbourly network. This chapter concludes that although a resettlement approach may be seen as a promising solution in theory, in practice, there are many limitations and problems.
