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Land policy is about the decisions and actions of policymakers with regard to land uses, public interests and land use rights. Land policy is public policy because it involves collective decision making (Davy 2012). It includes a variety of public measures (eg spatial planning, land readjustment, taxing or financial incentives) with an influence on land use, land values and the distribution of land. Furthermore, land policy is concerned with the efficient allocation of land uses. As for flood risk management the allocation of land follows different rationalities which reflect the tension between the public interest in reducing risks at the catchment level and the private interest of maintaining local land use rights and land values with a minimum of public interference.

Against this background this contribution starts with tracing the ‘spatial turn’in flood policy (Löschner et al. 2014), ie the increased importance of land-related issues in flood risk management, being one of the key elements in the implementation of the EU Flood Directive (Directive 2007/60/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 23 October 2007 on the assessment and management of flood risks). Claiming space for rivers results in an increasing demand for private land or in land uses being in line with flood mitigation requirements. The research project RiskAdapt (Anticipatory Flood Risk Management under Climate Change Scenarios: From Assessment to Adaptation) funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund is the research background of this paper. The overall goal of RiskAdapt is to provide policy-relevant insights and conclusions regarding the current Austrian system of …