Recent crises have proved that our society is increasingly confronted with a broad variety of challenges and threats, which need new approaches and strategies for developing adequate solutions. The impacts of drastic changes in our economic, social, environmental and technological frameworks, however, are unequally distributed: The ability of our cities and regions to cope with emerging risks and to overcome their negative impacts seems to be strongly different, depending on relevant local conditions. In other words, local vulnerabilities against sudden shocks (e.g. natural disasters, wars, pandemics) or against constant stresses (e.g. climate change, inflation, ageing of society) are not random but determined by selected spatial characteristics. From that point of view, cities and regions need customized planning strategies, which refer both to the built and natural environment and to socio-economic and institutional conditions, in order to be prepared for future challenges and threats. In this context, the research project “VESPA” provides a prototype for a rapid vulnerability-city-check for Austrian cities, which can be used as a handy tool for political decision-makers and city administrations to get a rough overview on specific vulnerabilities against emerging risks, threats and challenges. Therefore, the main goal is to define and to implement a comprehensive system of relevant local criteria, which allows an evidence-based assessment of specific vulnerabilities of a certain city. For that purpose, subjective assessments of local stakeholders are combined with data-based indicators to provide local vulnerability profiles, which reveal the ability of a certain city to resist external threats. The experiences of this case study, which is implemented in 5 Austrian cities shall then be translated into a general concept for evidence-based vulnerability city-checks in general.