About


The aim of CRiSDA is to support a knowledge-based, comprehensive climate risk management by developing a participatory process to jointly develop and explore essential tools and methods for a drought climate risk service for Austria.


Despite efforts to mitigate climate change, far-reaching impacts on the environment and society are expected in the future. To support the management of climate risks, the IPCC has developed a risk framework:
Risk refers to the intersection of:

  • Hazards (possible occurrence of a natural or man-made physical event or trend resulting in damage or loss),

  • Exposure (the presence of elements in a given area where hazard events may occur) and

  • Vulnerability (the sensitivity of exposed elements such as people, their livelihoods and assets to be negatively affected by hazard events)



Researching and identifying climate risk and its components helps to successfully manage current and potential future impacts and identify appropriate measures. This facilitates a holistic climate risk management.

To support climate risk management, the concept of climate services has emerged and gained momentum in the past. The WMO defines climate services as “the provision of climate information in a manner that supports decision-making by individuals and organisations”, with the addition that “climate services require appropriate engagement together with an effective access mechanism and must meet the needs of users”. The need for operational and standardised climate risk services will become even more evident in the near future with the EU taxonomy on sustainable activities, both at a global level and in Austria at a federal as well as a provincial level.

However, it is criticised that climate services have so far been supply- rather than demand-driven, they should offer more support for climate risk management or should also close the gap between science and policy through co-production. In Austria, the availability and use of climate services is still very limited and focuses mainly on the use of scientific data. Although there is in principle a variety of climate data, tools and risk assessment methods from different research areas available, these have not yet been applied in climate risk management.

We therefore see a gap in the conceptualisation of climate services, especially at the interface between science, policy and practice for climate risk management. CRiSDA is a direct response to these gaps and needs!