Risk assessment of earth mass movements in Lower Austria. Case study: NoeMotion Project

Landslides have caused significant losses in terms of lives and economic damage across the globe. Understanding their triggering factors, dynamics and potential impact is fundamental to implement more comprehensive disaster risk reduction measures to strengthen communities resilience. However, the lack of baseline data and impact information remains challenging. In order to improve our knowledge and to fill existing gaps between practitioners, disaster risk reduction institutions and other stakeholders, risk assessment and risk management projects can be appropriate starting points. Here, we present the results of a risk assessment analysis of three selected locations in Lower Austria. The region of Lower Austria is particularly affected by landslides due to its complex geology and anthropogenic impact. The present research focuses on three earth mass movements with rotational characteristics in the regions of Erla, Behamberg, and Kreisbach. We developed different physical-based models to visualize different scenarios of potential runout areas and fluxes. Then, we performed an analysis of the cascading risk to estimate the potential economic damage in these regions to be able to propose adequate disaster risk reduction measures that could contribute to the region resilience.