Cross-Cutting Issues

Both the risk concept for natural hazards and the way society deals with risks are highly complex. Risk communication for the public therefore faces major challenges, while complex risks are difficult to accept for the affected people. Science communication and risk governance at INTERPRAEVENT 2024 attempt to close this gap between experts and laypeople, science and engineering practice and to/as well as to support society in dealing with hazards and risks in a changing climate.

In terms of water hazards, the Alpine and the Danube Region form a natural unit in the heart of Europe that requires a holistic system of climate adaption and flood risk management. INTERPRAEVENT 2024 links sectoral protection concepts to form an integral safety system for the Danube river basin and brings together national stakeholders in a European and international network of experts, such as ICPDR, Alpine Convention or EUSALP.

The rapid retreat of the glaciers and the dissolution of the permafrost are intensifying Alpine mass movements and erosion processes to a hitherto unknown dynamic. INTERPRAEVENT 2024 focuses on the increased occurrence of spectacular landslides, large rock avalanches and massive debris flows, the consequences of which will trigger cascading risk scenarios for the Alpine habitat.

Extreme weather events and natural disasters are increasing, as a consequence of global warming and intensive land use in the Alpine region, which is associated with a sharp rise in the vulnerability of society. INTERPRAEVENT 2024 shows the risk scenarios of extremes events for various natural hazards and focuses on the necessary adaptation of safety levels and protection concepts.

Natural disasters under the influence of global warming show the limits of technical protection and at the same time demonstrate the loss of the protective effect of ecosystems that have been sacrificed to human land use over the course of history. INTERPRAEVENT 2024 will focus on the importance of the concept of Nature-based Solutions and will emphasise the potential to strengthen the protective function against natural hazards by restoring natural areas (protective forests, wetlands, natural floodplains) and reactivating water habitats through near-natural protection measures.

While conventional protection concepts against natural disasters are reaching their limits, scientific innovations, digitalisation and new technologies are ushering in a veritable technological revolution in natural hazard management. INTERPRAEVENT 2024 brings new methods in the fields of monitoring, remote sensing, measurement, testing and numerical modelling of natural hazard processes to the fore and does not stop at the megatrends of artificial intelligence and the use of big satellite data.