Property, Property Rights, Natural Hazards and Beyond

Climate change is happening and it will have severe effects on human wellbeing and prosperity. These natural hazards will affect coastal, rural and urban areas. Besides effects on biodiversity and humans also property might be damaged or decrease in value. This requires disaster management, ranging from prevention to recovery. In order to manage the adverse effects, measures to increase resilience are necessary. These measures can be stimulated or done by the government, or by citizens themselves. This chapter focuses on the role of property rights in contributing to resilience. It discusses what property rights are—in common law and civil law systems, infringements of property rights, the remedies against these infringements and finally it reflects on the situation that natural hazards cause damage to property and different recovery mechanisms. The notion of property rights is placed in the wider context of justice.