# Vulnerability of Buildings to Meteorological Hazards:
## 5 Conclusions  
The use of indicators for vulnerability assessments of buildings subject to three meteorological hazards and the implementation in a web tool has been presented and discussed in this paper. A thorough literature review led to a set of vulnerability indicators for each building that were weighted using expert judgment and AHP. The vulnerability indicators were aggregated in a single index. The methodology presented here is of great value to a variety of end-users. Homeowners can assess the vulnerability of the building and reduce it accordingly. Local authorities can have a detailed picture of the physical vulnerability and its spatial variation within a settlement and use this information as a basis for decision-making. Insurance companies, engineers, and scientists, but also emergency services, can use the generated information for, e.g., setting premiums, investigating the interaction between structures and natural processes, and optimizing the design of buildings. Indicator-based vulnerability analysis for buildings subject to meteorological hazards is, however, still in its infancy. Further research towards a validation of the existing methodology following new events is required. Furthermore, laboratory experiments testing different roof materials, for example, could be used to refine the indicator selection. Statistical methods could be used for the weighting of indicators based on empirical damage data. Weighting based on expert judgment can be improved by including more experts from different countries and disciplines. Additionally, more indicators should be considered, including indicators associated with the immediate surroundings of the buildings, such as shielding from dense vegetation or other buildings and the existence of movable objects in the immediate vicinity. Finally, the interaction between these three hazards on the impact on buildings should also be investigated since these three hazards often occur at the same time.  
This method involves several uncertainties and limitations, such as high data requirements, time-consuming data collection, and uncertainties associated with the reaction of materials and building components. Nevertheless, the indicator-based approach presented in this paper provides an overview of the vulnerability of buildings and their vulnerable components at a local scale, giving the opportunity to end-users to target specific buildings or weak points of these buildings and prioritize their actions and their resources for vulnerability and risk reduction.  
Conceptualization, T.L., M.P.-K., A.G. and S.F.; methodology, M.P.-K. and A.G.; software, W.H. and R.M.; data curation, S.F., W.H. and R.M.; writing--original draft preparation, M.P.-K.; writing--review and editing, S.F., W.H. and R.M.; visualization, W.H. and R.M.; supervision, S.F.; project administration, T.L.; funding acquisition, S.F. and T.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received funding from the Austrian Road Safety Board (Kuratorium fur Verkehrssicherheit, KFV), Austria. Please note that continuous hosting and maintenance of the website is provided by KFV.  
Not applicable.  
Not new data were created.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.