Abstract
In May 2014, Serbia was hit by a catastrophic flooding event. The Municipality of Obrenovac suffered severe consequences due to a number of reasons, mainly the poor conditions of flood protection infrastructure and outdated land use management. These problems have been triggered and/or affected by the post-socialist transition of Serbia, initiated during the 1990s. The ongoing period of socio-economic turbulences, also detected in other countries with a similar development background, caused a shift in both the planning paradigm and the economy (from a planned/centralized model to a market-oriented model), creating numerous problems related to the synchronization of legislation, governance, implementation and management. Considering the specificities of local context, as well as its similarities to other post-socialist countries, the main aims of the article are to establish a relationship between planning, legislation and flood resilience, identify its (un)sustainable elements and provide an insight into the dynamic of their causal links whose effectiveness could be improved in given conditions. The main findings indicate an absence of a sustainable policy which would guarantee efficient implementation (regarding both planning documents and laws). Simultaneously, there were other challenges—from the lack of risk assessment to outdated regulations and general unpreparedness which led to severe damage of urban systems and local economy, while many lives were lost. Consequently, the article provides guidelines for new planning documents, suggesting measures that would increase the resilience of flood protection (applicable in both local and regional context), as well as the overall sustainability of the analyzed area and its ecosystem.
Highlights
When Cyclone Tamara struck in May 2014, Serbia demonstrated itself to be unprepared
Considering the current state of research on resilience in the challenging post-socialist context of Serbia [14,15], which has been characterized by socio-economic turbulences affecting legislation, governance, implementation and management, this article aims to establish a relationship between planning, legislation and flood resilience, identify its mainsustainable elements and provide an insight into the dynamic of their causal links whose effectiveness could be improved in given conditions, both on the local and regional level
The refurbishment of the selected case area—the settlement Brace Jugovic, which was conducted by the support of donations obtained before the 2018 Law on Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Management, did not respect this principle decreasing the overall quality of the settlement
Summary
When Cyclone Tamara struck in May 2014, Serbia demonstrated itself to be unprepared. Heavy rainfall caused vast floods in the Balkans and the amount of rainfall ranged from 120 mm to over 200 mm in a three-day period. According to Dragovic [1], floods recorded before May 2014 covered areas of several hundred to several thousand square kilometers, revealing low resilience and general unpreparedness for emergency situations in Serbia. The Serbian Law on Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Management [5] defines resilience as a capability of a community exposed to hazards to respond to those hazards, to recover timely and efficiently while maintaining basic functions. This definition, adopted from the recently developed theoretical background, still has to be applied and verified in Serbian practice
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