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Change triggered by natural hazards such as pluvial and coastal floods, sea-level rise as well as risks resulting from water scarcity are highly dynamic and related to the effects of ongoing climate change. Whether and how societies adapt, adjust, change, or transform because of climate change and related risks, is a currently debated topic. This question demands revisiting and comprehensively addressing existing theoretical foundations of transformations in risk management strategies and in risk governance to find effective ways to deal with climate change effects and their social consequences. Hence, the paper discusses current developments in transformation research and exemplifies this discussion with four interdisciplinary cases, which the co-authors reported in previous publications. Findings from Austria include a governance change within flood risk management related to zonation. Relocation in Indonesia and Kiribati showcases its cultural, behavioural as well as economic implications. Water scarcity in South Africa underlines the importance of behavioural change to enable the structural storage of rainwater. This paper analyses aspects of adjustment or transformation in these four examples. This may inform risk managers, decision-makers, practitioners, and planners dealing with natural hazards related to climate change how to conceptualise their (re-)actions. • Differences between the terms adaptation, adjustment, change, and transformation are analysed and working definitions suggested. • Triggers and interventions are analysed whether they express adaptation, adjustment, or transformation. • Empirical cases are re-analysed whether the changes therein exhibit elements of adaptation, adjustment, or transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper aims to provide a new and practical approach called ‘Legislation-Check’ to identifying shortcomings in national legislation in terms of how well it implements sustainable development, and ways of improving the legislation. National legislation was chosen as it represents a sort of ‘skeleton of society’ and defines the status quo, as well as setting the main environmental, societal and economic directions of the population covered. The approach presented is based on a new concept called ‘3-D Sustainability’, which focuses on the precautionary principle. 3-D Sustainability provides criteria in a flexible hierarchy for solving conflicts of interest between economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. In this paper, these criteria and dimensions are applied to various sectors of Austrian national environmental legislation to identify the shortcomings of the legislation and ways of addressing these shortcomings. This paper shows, by way of quantitative data, a significant increase in the use of sustainability related terms in generally applicable legal instruments (both federal and provincial) in Austria since 2003. In qualitative terms the results of the paper further indicate, using national environmental legislation, several hierarchical disorders between different legal acts and opportunities for improving them. Furthermore, inadequacies in the way that the legislation handles sustainable development and a total lack of overall objectives and targets in terms of sustainability are highlighted, which can jeopardise sustainable development. The concept of ‘3-D Sustainability’ has not previously focused on national legislation, despite the practical importance of the legal implementation and enforcement on this geographic level. Hence, this paper contributes, through scientifically-based decision support, to practical pathways for the innovation of institutional, procedural and substantive arrangements in existing legislation. The approach presented in this paper is not restricted to environmental issues, but is applicable to all thematic areas. It is also not geographically limited, but could be implemented in any country and also beyond national borders. Furthermore, the approach can be easily replicated and provides systematically gained results for global governance change towards sustainable development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Diverse and unique landscapes not only are one of the key assets of Austrian tourism industry, but are also highly valued for local identity, quality of life and their ecological functions. Society tries to prevent unintended landscape change and thereby purposefully intervenes in landscape development by countless environmental regulations, contracts with landholders, agri-environmental schemes, landscape and nature reserves, food-related activities such as ‘eat the view’ and labels of origin. In the face of increasing state control and the growing influence of (inter-) nationally acting civil society groups, the paper poses the question whether the local population still has a saying in the governance of their landscape. Is it the local people, their costumes and institutions that shape the diversity and uniqueness of landscapes (i.e., the ‘root meaning of landscape’ [Olwig, K.R., 2002. Landscape, Nature, and the Body Politic. From Britain''s Renaissance to America''s New World. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.]) or is local peculiarity lost to national or international landscape control? The paper analyses the changing structures of use and control rights to Austrian landscapes and resulting shifts between locally driven and centrally controlled landscape change. The paper is a meta-analysis of ten empirically founded interdisciplinary research projects on cultural landscapes in Austria. The results are compared with international literature that indicates a loss of control of the local rural population over their natural resources. In the Austrian case however, the local population (re-) negotiates and (re-) interprets complex and conflicting international and state regulations according to their respective needs before concretizing them in actual land use practises. Some participation projects and self-governed local civic society movements integrate non-landholders. In few of homogenisation forces such as CAP and international regulations, diverse and unique landscapes call for the involvement of the local preferences, traditions, knowledge and skills—of both local non-landholders and landholders. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Vienna's biomass demand is large and nearly all biomass consumed in the city is produced in the regional and global hinterland. This raises the question, how the socioecological conditions at specific places somewhere in the world are impacted by urban consumption and how negative impacts can be addressed and mitigated by urban actors. Here we focus on the city's biodiversity footprint and argue that the spatial mismatch between the social-ecological impacts of biomass production and consumption and its impact on biodiversity on the one hand, and the governance instruments available at a city level mentioned by the interviewed experts on the other hand, must be considered when looking for bottom-up governance strategies of urban actors. We combine food regime theory, the analysis of biomass flows and a multiscalar governance approach to analyze "biomass from somewhere" in three important sectors of biomass use in Vienna – food, energy and construction timber. We find that consumption in Vienna requires 3.1 Mio. t of primary biomass per year (2010–2013), of which 59 % are for food, 28 % for material (only 1.3 % for construction) and 13 % for energy; roughly half of this biomass was sourced from Austria, the rest from other countries, mainly in Europe. While governance instruments at the city level are quite effective with respect to urban ecosystems and conservation within the city, they are insufficient to tackle biodiversity loss in the global hinterland. Important leverage points at the city scale are public procurement and the promotion of consumption patterns with lower land and primary biomass demand. An important prerequisite is unambiguous information and labelling concerning the biodiversity impacts of biomass products which is complicated by the fact that indirect land use effects need to be considered. Currently, none of the governance measures investigated includes extensive biodiversity criteria. We conclude that to effectively address the spatial mismatch, a different mode of production – regulated at higher scales and including mandatory measures – and a different mode of consumption as well as a reduction of consumption and production is required. • The paper scrutinizes governance options for mitigating pressure on biodiversity. • It presents a conceptual approach to analyze "biomass from somewhere". • Almost 50 % of the biomass consumed in Vienna originates from foreign countries. • Urban room for maneuver is limited regarding the biomass regime. • Unambiguous information concerning the biodiversity impacts of products is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper combines the experience economy and the innovation system approach. • Creative approaches in forestry show promising business results. • Experience brings decisive added value to non-wood forest products related businesses. • Quality in the experiences comes with the active role and involvement of the customers. • Institutional support is lacking in all four cases examined. There is increasing emphasis on innovation as a driver of continued prosperity in the rural economy. Globalisation poses challenges to rural areas given technological advances and intensified competition in agricultural markets, ageing rural populations and expansion of urban areas. However, in recent years, the conception of rural areas has shifted from places of production to places of consumption. In line with an increasing urban demand for consumption of products and services close to nature within the rural landscape, we observe the emergence of experiential offers based around non-wood forest products (NWFP) where the consumer is closely connected to the harvesting and use of the products. In this paper, we examine how such intersecting demands have created new forms of market for NWFP, by analysing in-depth four innovative examples in Austria and the United Kingdom. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the managers of these businesses, and cases were analysed through application of both the experience economy and the innovation systems approach. We found that all four businesses were on the one hand derived from traditional, regional cultural skills and values and, on the other hand, directly connected to new consumers' demands. The apparent success of these emerging business models lies in the accretion of new social values onto traditional products. Thus creative approaches blending offers designed to enhance cosumers' experiences into traditional sectors, such as forestry, would have potential in the future. However, our results indicate that there is a lack of institutional support for the development of such businesses in both countries. Better suited innovation policies and support structures would be important for mainstreaming or encouraging the development of similar businesses, innovations and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to ongoing urbanisation processes, farmland and the number of farms in Europe are declining. In the regions affected, spatial planning plays a substantial role in securing agricultural production requirements. The extent to which planning decision-makers actually consider agricultural interests, however, has been little investigated so far. Based on two Austrian case studies, this paper explores the presence of agricultural interests within local spatial planning as well as potential preconditions for their perception and implementation. A systematic case study selection through a weighted linear combination (WLC) brought up the two agro-structurally contrasting municipalities Aderklaa and Leopoldsdorf, located at the Viennese city border. Problem-centred interviews with 27 local spatial planning actors, supplemented by the analysis of planning documents, provided insights into the local spatial planning processes. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework served as the conceptual basis for the qualitative data analysis and the subsequent cross-case comparison. Aderklaa has preserved its rural characteristics in the past decades. Almost 90 % of the municipal area is used as farmland; there are about 25 farms in the village of 196 inhabitants. Leopoldsdorf, on the other hand, experienced an urbanisation of its former village structure. Farmland makes up 50 % of Leopoldsdorf's area. The municipality has 5230 inhabitants; three farms still exist today. Regarding the integration of agricultural interests into local spatial planning, the municipalities show significant differences: While Aderklaa aligns its spatial planning policy to a large extent with the interests of local farmers, this is not the case in Leopoldsdorf. The study was able to identify the political commitment of local farmers as crucial for the integration of agricultural interests into local spatial planning and to confirm the impact of spatial planning decisions on agriculture. • Local spatial planning policy impacts local farming in various ways. • Planning decisions from previous periods shape recent local agricultural structures. • Peri-urban municipalities do not inevitably lose their agricultural structures. • Farmers in politics are crucial for their interests' integration into planning. • Practically only farmers express agricultural interests in local spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes the so-called ‘Governance-Check’, a new approach for assessing governance structures and making them more sustainable, and also applies it on the example of Austrian environmental institutions and organisations. Three parts are analysed mainly by means of the concept ‘3-D Sustainability’ (Mauerhofer, 2008a): (1) the constitutional distribution of competences among public authorities on a spatial scale, (2) the distribution of different competences to a single public authority based on sub-constitutional legislation, and (3) the relationship between different public authorities in a federal state based on sub-constitutional legislation. For all the three parts, public authorities are assessed regarding the public powers given to them to govern environmental, social and economic capital and capacity as capital authorities and/or capacity authorities. The results present for all three parts innovative and practical pathways towards a more sustainable type of governance, with the aim of overcoming the incoherencies, conflicts of interests and inadequate levels of cooperation which could be identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper introduces the so-called ‘Convention-Check’ as a new bottom-up approach of assessing the contribution of large-scale protected areas to the implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) that are introduced from the top down. The assessment consists of three major sub-sequential parts: the current contribution of a protected area to the implementation of the MEAs, recommendations for improvements and – through an ex-post-evaluation – the impact of the recommendations provided. The Convention-Check is carried out in a total of ten methodical working steps. A very first application of the method is presented based on the example of an Austrian National Park. In this example, a Convention-Check was carried out using five MEAs and was evaluated after two years. The results show that there is great variability regarding the number and intensity of implementation measures already taken by the different levels of governance addressed. Potential reasons and perspectives for the example situation, as well as possibilities for future improvement of the method and its global application on large scale protected areas, are discussed. A significant and causal impact of the Convention-Check towards improved protected area governance is already shown by the Austrian example after two years. The Convention-Check combines different working methods from social as well as natural sciences in a new way. Its innovative approach is designed to overcome deadlocks in the top-down implementation of MEAs by means of bottom-up initiatives out of large scale protected areas, and aims to contribute towards improved global protected area governance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper assesses the area demand of Austria in the 75 years from 1926 to 2000. In order to estimate the area of arable land, pastures and forests needed to sustain Austria''s socio-economic metabolism I used country-specific yields, contrary to the conventional Ecological Footprint approach that expresses its results in global average hectares. This study explicitly assesses the countries of origin of all imported biomass products. Forest areas were evaluated using two methods. In the ‘production’ approach country-specific felling rates were used, in the ‘sustainable yield approach’ wood increment per country was taken as a proxy for maximum sustainable yield. Austria''s overall area demand is considerably larger than the biologically productive area of its own territory during the entire time period, mainly due to fossil fuel consumption. If only biomass use and built-up land are taken into account, both the production and the sustainable yield approach show an almost constant area demand from 1926 to 2000. In the production approach Austria''s area demand is slightly larger than Austria''s bioproductive area, in the sustainable yield approach it is slightly smaller. The area needed to support Austria''s imports is mainly located in neighbouring countries. In earlier years eastern European countries (e.g., Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Serbia) play a major role, whereas in the recent decades the EU-15 countries are the main providers of Austrian area imports. In 2000, the area required to maintain imports is of a similar size as domestically used land, except for grasslands, demonstrating the dependence of Austria''s socio-economic metabolism on regional or even global markets. This study shows that area demand depends on two factors: consumption level and yields per hectare. In the case of Austria, considerable increases in consumption were counterbalanced by yield surges. Indicators of area demand should therefore be complemented by indicators that evaluate the environmental effects of land use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents the ‘MEFA toolbox’, which is designed to measure society–nature interaction. MEFA stands for ‘material and energy flow accounting’ and refers to a set of quantitative methods to trace the materials and energy throughput of societies in a way that can be readily linked to established socio-economic data sets on a national and sub-national level. Within the MEFA framework, accounts of socio-economic material and energy stocks and flows can be linked to land use and its impact on material and energy stocks and flows in terrestrial ecosystems. Using Austria 1950–2000 as an empirical example, we demonstrate how MEFA tools can be used to assess the correlation of physical and monetary growth, and we discuss how changes in socio-economic metabolism and land use are related. We also outline some possible future research directions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we evaluate the relations between land-use and socio-economic metabolism and particularly, socio-economic biomass flows, by constructing four scenarios for Austria in 2020. The scenarios were established using a biomass-flow model for Austria which was developed for this analysis. The model distinguishes between 15 different kinds of land use and relates demand for biomass in Austria to biomass production in Austria, considering imports and exports as well as biomass conversions in industrial processing and in livestock. We discuss four scenarios: (1) a trend scenario, based upon an extrapolation of current trends; (2) a scenario assuming the far-reaching liberalization of agricultural markets; (3) a scenario in which biomass utilization for energy and industry is maximized; and (4) a scenario based upon the approach of “cascade utilization” of biomass. We find that increasing the use of biomass as an energy source might have considerable unwanted ecological effects including, among others, a reduction in the functioning of forests as a terrestrial carbon sink. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Discursively, public-private responsibility sharing is increasingly debated. • Institutionally, policy instruments hardly promote the use of private measures. • Stabilising factors hinder institutional shift towards more responsibility sharing. • Yet, factors of change are slowly emerging (e.g. expertise). The frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events are expected to increase due to the effects of climate change and socio-economic development. Potentially higher flood risk, hence, triggered debate about a shift in flood risk management from mainly public to increasingly private involvement. So far, public flood mitigation schemes were standard modes to deal with flood hazards in many countries, including Austria. With high implementation and maintenance costs as well as substantial losses remaining, alternative management approaches have increasingly been discussed. This paper analyses the debate on shifting responsibilities in flood risk management from public to private actors and whether or not the current governance arrangement would accommodate this shift in the public-private divide. Based on qualitative research, we explicitly analyse this potential shift from an institutional perspective and not from the perspective of individual homeowners, taking the case study of Dornbirn (Austria) as an example. The results show that, firstly, the current governance arrangement hardly encourages property-level flood risk adaptation measures. Secondly, several factors stabilise the current governance arrangement and prevent a shift in the public-private divide. Although the need for an increased sense of responsibility among private actors seems to be evident among interviewees, strong historical narratives and adaptive expectations lead to a society seeing public authorities to be responsible for flood risk management and trust their expertise as well as the technical flood infrastructure. However, such areas of expertise and law are fragmented and therefore impede a redistribution or enforcement of responsibilities. Furthermore, fixed costs delay a shift in the public-private divide as the traditional engineering approach (i.e. structural measures) is predominant with high investments in the current system but limited investment in risk communication to raise awareness. Yet, a shift towards sharing responsibility might contribute to flood risk management for risks to remain manageable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses changes in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems caused by land use. It presents an empirical analysis of changes in land use, agricultural productivity, and socio-economic biomass metabolism in Austria during the 19th and 20th centuries, related to the process of 'industrial modernization', i.e. the transition from asociety relying entirely on solar energy to the industrial society of today based on fossil fuel use. The development of 'human appropriation of net primary production' in connection with the changes in thesocio-economic energy system are discussed for the period 1830/1995. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]