Depending on the climate parameters, time of year, scale and degree of adaptation, the advancing global climate change has led to changes that impact systems in different ways. Climate change adaptation and the identification of possible intervention measures requires a founded analysis of the risks related to climate change and its impacts. In order to adequately prepare for impending changes, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, in partnership with the nine Austrian States (Länder), has initiated the project ÖKS15, which aims at preparing a basis for developing action strategies for climate change adaptation.
The Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), the Wegener Centre for Climate and Global Change at the University of Graz, and the Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS at the University of Salzburg have been commissioned to undertake an analysis of past and future climate change in the Austrian States. The results will be prepared principally for decision makers in policy and practice and will be fed into the federal and state GIS systems, as well as integrated into the Climate Data Centre of the Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA), and will, therefore, be available for further research on climate change impacts and adaptation.