By 2050, more than 140 million people worldwide could be forced to flee due to climate change. Sarah Louise Nash, a political scientist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (BOKU) and the University of Advanced Education in Krems, knows that those most affected are those who lack the means to escape.

As diverse as climate impacts are – from heat waves and droughts to storms, floods and sea level rise – the impacts on migration are equally diverse. As a result of the storm, people are more likely to leave the area in a hurry. Unlike events that occur slowly, migration can be a strategy to cope with food shortages or loss of income. Perhaps you are moving your place of residence for a long time or only for a short time or regularly in a circular motion in order to catch up with seasonal work, for example. While many people migrate within their home country, only a smaller group cross international borders. In some regions, it is possible to predict, based on forecasts, but also as a result of past experience with extreme weather events, that people will have to relocate due to climate impacts. When official planning takes place to enable this relocation, usually with government involvement, it is referred to as planned relocation. Such programs also exist in Austria, for example in the Eferdinger basin in Upper Austria, where flood events on the Danube threaten people's homes. (NÖN editorial team)