Eastern European Perspective on the Environmental Aspects in Current Flood Risk Management: The Example of the Czech Republic

Abstract

New approaches to flood risk management strategies, moving away from large-scale technical solutions towards a greater involvement of natural processes, have recently been observed in some European countries. The primary purpose of this paper is to analyze this trend in the Czech Republic, an eastern European country in which engineered approaches have been heavily employed in the recent past. To assess the environmental aspects of current flood management strategies, the degree of implementation of “green” measures in relevant documents was evaluated at two levels: national legislative level and the regional implementation level. While the shift towards natural solutions in flood protection is well reflected at national level, traditional engineered approaches favouring “grey” infrastructure still prevail at regional level. The study discusses possible reasons for this gap between levels of governance and looks at the obstacles that hinder the promotion of natural measures in flood risk management.