Three more CCCA Fact Sheets have been published, under the titles Heat-associated excess mortality, The distributional impact of flood damage compensation policy in Austria and Social vulnerability to flood risk and the impact of climate change in Austria! 

Fact Sheet No. 53: Social vulnerability to flood risk and the impact of climate change in Austria by Max Tesselaar (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 2025)

• Flood risk assessments that consider social vulnerability to floods, based on socio-economic indicators, show different locations of flood risk hotspots compared to mainstream methods of assessing flood risk.
• Besides existing procedures in Austria, FRM can be improved by considering social vulnerability when deciding where to prioritize adaptation efforts.
• In areas with high social flood risk but relatively low physical flood exposure less capital-intensive adaptation measures can be prudent, such as improving evacuation support plans, stimulating household-level risk-reduction and increasing flood insurance coverage.
• Climate change impacts on future flood hazard vary between catchments. Socioeconomic change drives the concentration of flood exposure towards major urban centres.

Fact Sheet No. 54: The distributional impact of flood damage compensation policy in Austria by Max Tesselaar (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 2025)

• Austria faces a substantial flood insurance protection gap. After a damaging flood households and governments need to redirect funding to cover uninsured damages.
• Improvements in flood protection have short-term benefits to reduce the protection gap, but this strategy becomes less effective as the climate changes.
• Effective flood insurance reform to improve coverage requires expanding or limiting coverage by the catastrophe fund. The latter strategy enables higher private flood insurance coverage which may be supported by public reinsurance coverage.
• Government involvement in the provision of flood insurance limits rising inequality in flood vulnerability.
• Mandatory flood insurance is recommended. A limited degree of risk-reflective pricing is beneficial to stimulate adaptation to flood risk.

Fact Sheet No. 55: Heat-associated excess mortality by Jörg Wipplinger, Lukas Richter, Norbert Handra and Barbara Kovács (AGES), Max Nutz, Johanna Oberzaucher and Hildegard Kaufmann (GeoSphere Austria), Katharina Brugger (GÖG), Barbara Leitner (Statistik Austria)

• Excess mortality is not a direct observation, but a statistical estimate. To calculate excess mortality, a baseline mortality must be estimated — that is, the mortality rate under normal conditions. A statistical model can then be used to calculate a deviation from the baseline mortality for specific time periods.
• Heat-associated excess mortality occurs when, during a period of high temperatures, more people die than would be expected based on the baseline mortality for that period.
• In Austria, heat-associated excess mortality is estimated as part of the Heat Mortality Monitoring (HitzeMOMO) programme run by AGES. The highest excess mortality calculated to date was recorded in 2018, with over 500 additional deaths.