Local Social Systems Research Articles

CARACTERIZAÇÃO AGROECOLÓGICA DE SISTEMAS TRADICIONAIS DE PRODUÇÃO DO AÇAÍ (EUTERPE SPP.) EM CARAUARI, NO MÉDIO RIO JURUÁ, ESTADO DO AMAZONAS

Em Carauari, a coleta extrativa e o cultivo do açaí (Euterpe spp.) resultam do manejo complexo de agroecossistemas que diferem em seus aspectos sociais e organizacionais. Para descrever os padrões de organização agroecológica desses diferentes agroecossistemas produtores de açaí, foram realizados levantamentos dendrométricos e edafológicos, para caracterização das estruturas das populações de Euterpe spp., suas distribuição e interação nos sistemas ambientais e sociais locais. Os levantamentos foram conduzidos em três territórios coletivos: Projeto de Assentamento Riozinho, na Reserva Extrativista Médio Juruá; e na Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável de Uacari. Os açaizais ocorrem em ambiente de terra firme ou em áreas próximas de corpos d’água, sob a forma de floresta extrativa de E. precatoria ou de sistemas cultivados. Esses últimos podem ser monocultivos, consórcios entre as espécies Euterpe oleraceae e Euterpe precatoria, ou sistema agroflorestal com outras espécies de frutíferas e madeireiras, associadas ou não com a criação de animais. Esses agroecossistemas geram significados econômicos e culturais importantes, além de estruturarem as paisagens locais.

기후 영향에 따른 해양 관광지의 취약성 연구: 관광객의 인식을 중심으로

Global warming of the Korean Peninsula is increasing strongly and marine tourism destinations are influenced by the changes in air temperature, water temperature, and sea level. The effects may directly influence tourists’ marine activities. This study tries to analyze the vulnerability of marine tourists’ areas affected by climate change in the perspective of tourists’ cognitions and to contribute to develop the indices of tourism vulnerability. The concepts of vulnerability consist of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptative capacity. This study designed the indices of tourism vulnerability based on previous studies, reflecting current situation of Korean marine tourists’ areas. The questionnaire designed was analyzed by conducting survey. The results found that concentrated heavy rains, frequent rains, abnormal high temperature of summer, strong sunshine, and high humidity were hindered to tourists’ activities. In sensitivity analysis, the marine tourists perceived that climate factors influenced the stabilization of tourism infrastructure, management of tourism business, and sustainability of local social systems to marine tourists’ areas and local societies. The change of business management and change of social systems were appeared in analysis of adaptative capacity. This study may give some insights to government and private sectors to prepare vulnerable dimensions of marine tourists’ areas and to make coping strategies for them.

Volcanic eruptions, successive poor harvests and social resilience over southwest China during the 18–19th century

Volcanic eruptions, climate changes and their influences on crop harvests and social development are of increasing concern in science communities. Using a dataset of crop harvest scores of southwest China from 1730 to 1910, which was derived from the memorials to the emperors in the Qing Dynasty of China, reconstructed climate proxies and the chronology of large volcanic eruptions occurring between 10°S and 15°N, we analysed possible relationships between crop harvests, climate changes and volcanic eruptions. In addition, some archives of policies and measures related to crops and social development extracted from the chronicles were used to analyse social resilience when faced with poor harvests. The results show that crop harvests in the study area generally increased with fluctuations when there were less low-latitude large volcanic eruptions from 1730 to 1810. However, from 1811 to 1910, volcanoes at low latitudes erupted more frequently, which contributed to concurrent low temperature and drought. Meanwhile, the crop harvests showed a step-down decrease during the following periods of 1810s, 1850s, 1870s and 1890s. Though, the local social system was certainly resilient in facing of such climate and agriculture disasters, i.e. the local society remained stable without significant famine, large-scale migration or social unrest until 1911. The strong resilience of local social systems owed largely to various relieving measures, such as, building barns, exempting or reducing local taxes, allocating farmland to immigrants, and central government dominated grain purchasing and distribution to alleviate disasters.

The Study on Social Capital's Function and development that Appears in Social Welfare Law : The Requirements for Establishment of Local Social Security Systems and Community Care

본 연구는 한국의 지역사회보장체계에서 커뮤니티 케어와 사회적 돌봄의 요건이 되는 사회적 자본의 형성과 확충방안 제시를 목적으로 한다. 이를 위하여 사회복지법제에 나타난 사회적 자본의 개념과 주요 요소를 분석한 결과, 사회보장기본법과 사회복지개별 법률 등에서 규정하고 있는 사회적 자본의 개념은 신뢰·연계·참여·협력·호혜적 활동에 의한 사회통합의 노력을 촉구하는 것으로 나타났다. 궁극적으로 사회복지법제에 나타난 사회적 자본의 주요 요소들은 무형의 자본인 사회적 자본의 실현 방안을 촉구하고 있어 기존의 이론을 실현할 수 있는 실천적 근거를 제시하고 있다. 또한 국가와 지방자치단체가 관장하는 지역사회보장체계 구축의 구도는 사회적 돌봄의 전제가 되는 전문직 간 협력 구도와 주민 참여, 민관협력 등 복지거버넌스의 책임이라 할 수 있다. 이에 사회적 자본 구축에 의한 지역사회통합돌봄과 평생사회안전망을 보장하기 위한 광역 연계와 네트워크 등 지역사회보장체계인 지역 복지거버넌스의 사회적 자본 형성과 확충 방안을 제언하고자 한다. 첫째, 지역 공동체성 강화를 위한 사회적 자본 확충을 위하여 지역사회보장협의체의 사회보장기능의 확대가 필요하다. 지역공동체성은 신뢰, 참여, 연계와 네트워크, 협력과 호혜성을 바탕으로 새로운 사회적 자본을 확충할 수도 있으므로 종전의 지역사회복지 및 지역사회보호체계에서 지역사회보장체계로 구축되어야 한다, 둘째, 사회서비스 수요자의 네트워크를 구축하는 ‘복지멤버십’ 추진으로 사회보장정보원을 통한 기초자치단체 간 사회보장정보전달체계의 네트워크 연계와 통합이 필요하다. 서비스 수요자의 수급자격 조사의 자동화와 지자체간 정보공유 절차를 생략하는 전자정부 기능으로 서비스의 분절화를 예방한다. 셋째, 지방자치단체 간 광역 연계와 네트워크 형성에 의한 사회서비스 통합 전달체계 구축으로 복지 자원 네트워크 연계를 강화하여 지역복지와 보건의료 서비스의 간극을 해소하는 사회서비스의 보편화를 촉진한다.This study aims to present plans for the formation and establishment of social capital that is a requirement of social care and the establishment of community social security systems in Korea. For this, it analyzed concepts and major elements of social capital that appear in social welfare law. Research results show that the concepts of social capital that are stipulated by the Framework Act on Social Security and individual social welfare laws demand efforts of social integration through trust, linkage, participation, cooperation, and reciprocal activities. Eventually, the major elements of social capital that appear in social welfare law demand realization plans for social capital, which is intangible capital, providing practical grounds on which existing theories can be realized. Also, establishment structures of community social security systems that control nations and local governments can be considered the responsibility of welfare governances such as cooperative structures among specialized jobs, resident participation, and public-private partnerships, which are prerequisites of community care. At this, proposals were made of social capital establishment plans in local welfare governances such as metropolitan linkages and networks for the securement of lifelong social safety nets and social care for the establishment of social capital. First, the social security functions of local social security councils must be enlarged for social capital expansion that can reinforce local community spirit. Local community spirit can expand new social capital based on trust, participation, connections, networks, cooperation, and reciprocity so local social security systems must be established from existing local social welfare and local social protection systems. Second, network connections and integration are needed in social security information delivery systems among primary local authorities through social security sources with promotions made by welfare memberships that construct networks for social service users. The segmentation of services is prevented with electronic government functions that omit information sharing procedures among local governments and the automation of supply and demand qualification surveys of service users. Third, broad connections and networks must be formed among local governments. With welfare support network connection reinforcements among local governments, proposals can be made for the establishment of social service integration delivery systems that promote the generalization of social services.

Pathways to enhanced lake integrity: A Framework to assess the effectiveness of local lake associations

AbstractThe promise of collaborative governance is to implement policies that address uncertain and multi‐scale environmental problems while also allowing local social systems to successfully adapt. The success of such efforts is contingent on the capacity of community‐based institutions such as lake associations to effect change. These organizations encapsulate the values communities hold for lakes and their catchments and can play a central role in managing the integrity of lakes’ freshwater resources. To this end, we develop a framework to delineate the pathways lake associations can take to contribute to the management of lakes and their catchments. We suggest the cornerstones of effective engagement in collaborative governance are the goals the organization sets for itself (mission), the capital that can be mobilized by the organization (capacity) and the activities the organization undertakes (actions). We propose measurable indicators for each component and suggest how the framework can be used to assess contributions of lake associations to multi‐scale governance. Finally, we suggest how this framework can be integrated with ecological monitoring frameworks as part of a long term social‐ecological research and monitoring program.

Is it home delivery or health facility? Community perceptions on place of childbirth in rural Northwest Tanzania using a qualitative approach

BackgroundIn low and middle-income countries, pregnancy and delivery complications may deprive women and their newborns of life or the realization of their full potential. Provision of quality obstetric emergency and childbirth care can reduce maternal and newborn deaths. Underutilization of maternal and childbirth services remains a public health concern in Tanzania. The aim of this study was to explore elements of the local social, cultural, economic, and health systems that influenced the use of health facilities for delivery in a rural setting in Northwest Tanzania.MethodsA qualitative approach was used to explore community perceptions of issues related to low utilization of health facilities for childbirth. Between September and December 2017, 11 focus group discussions were conducted with women (n = 33), men (n = 5) and community health workers (CHWs; n = 28); key informant interviews were conducted with traditional birth attendants (TBAs; n = 2). Coding, identification, indexing, charting, and mapping of these interviews was done using NVIVO 12 after manual familiarization of the data. Data saturation was used to determine when no further interviews or discussions were required.ResultsFour themes emerge; self-perceived obstetric risk, socio-cultural issues, economic concerns and health facility related factors. Health facility delivery was perceived to be crucial for complicated labor. However, the idea that childbirth was a “normal” process and lack of social and cultural acceptability of facility services, made home delivery appealing to many women and their families. In addition, out of pocket payments for suboptimal quality of health care was reported to hinder facility delivery.ConclusionHome delivery persists in rural settings due to economic and social issues, and the cultural meanings attached to childbirth. Accessibility to and affordability of respectful and culturally acceptable childbirth services remain challenging in this setting. Addressing barriers on both the demand and supply side could result in improved maternal and child outcomes during labor and delivery.

Methodological Dead Ends of Modern Criminology

The main source of methodological dead ends in science is the rigidity of its key theoretical construct determined by the accepted methodology. Such rigidity hinders the natural development of science that spreads it competencies to new unknown spheres of reality. Any attempts to apply a common concept to reality invariably come across its variety. The science resolves contradictions between the general and the specific by finding intermediary links between them. In all situations when a common concept is problematic, methodology plays the part of a high point that makes it possible to observe all shifts in the contradiction between the essence and the phenomenon. Criminology is based on the hypothesis of a society that generates crime. The contents of this society include the whole aggregate of public circumstances that have a criminological significance. Russian criminological mainstream views criminogenic circumstances as those in the sphere of socially negative public relations. The use of the criterion of socially negative relations to identify criminologically relevant public circumstances is the key obstacle for the criminological research in many directions. A true challenge for such research is explaining the nature of economic, corruption and information crimes. Their basics form public relations that are, for the most part, in the realm of the criminological unknown. Hence, it is problematic to produce well-founded recommendations on the development and implementation of a crime suppression policy. In the process of research, the authors determined that criminologically relevant circumstances may, in principle, belong to any of the possible aspects of analyzing the social environment. To prevent the general scheme aimed at identifying criminogenic circumstances from being stuck in the close and the immediate, it is necessary, first of all, to take into consideration a growing significance of independent actions of the community in its interaction with the state when determining the boundaries of the socially negative phenomena. Secondly, it is suggested that local social systems should be used as an intermediary link between the general scheme and specific local social interactions for representing the process of forming criminogenic circumstances in it entirety, in the interconnection of positive, negative and «grey» interactions.

Social Resilience in Disaster Recovery Planning for Fishing Port Cities: A Comparative Study of Prewar and Twenty-First-Century Tsunami Recovery Planning in the Northern Part of Japan

This study examines early disaster recovery and prevention planning projects in fishing port cities in the northern part of Japan after the 1933 Sanriku tsunami, the later modernization of those cities, and their current recovery from the 2011 Great Northern Japan earthquake. This work reframes the goal of disaster recovery and of disaster prevention planning in our society as social resilience—the ability of a community to cope with and adapt to stresses such as social, political, environmental, or economic change. Drawing on the author’s field research in Kesennuma, this study also describes postwar economic and industrial development in fishing ports that changed social and spatial structures. It shows that postwar administration and planners ignored the prewar disaster recovery and prevention planning based on local social systems, which caused fundamental problems in redevelopment and disaster prevention planning after 2011.

Challenges in integrating health and social care: the Better Care Fund in England.

Objectives The Better Care Fund is the first and only national policy in England that has legally mandated the use of pooled budgets to support local health and social care systems to provide better integrated care. Methods We report qualitative findings from the first national multi-method evaluation of the Better Care Fund, focusing on its implementation, perceptions of progress and expected impacts among key stakeholders. Interviews were carried out with 40 staff responsible for Better Care Fund implementation in 16 local health and social care sites between 2017 and 2018. Results Study participants reported their experiences of implementation, and we present these in relation to three themes: organizational issues, relational issues and wider contextual issues. Participants stressed the practical and political challenges of managing pooled budgets and the complexity of working across geographical boundaries. In a context of unprecedented austerity, shared vision and strong leadership were even more vital to achieve collaborative outcomes. Conclusion Pooling budgets through the Better Care Fund can lever closer collaboration between sectors and services. Shared vision and leadership are essential to develop and foster this closer collaboration. Although some successes were reported, the study highlights that there are major cultural, operational and territorial barriers to overcome.

Spaghetti: systems thinking and the US Army

ABSTRACTIn the mid-2000s, the United States Army was embroiled in counterinsurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that required deeper understanding of local social systems. The Army turned to systems thinking and design thinking to model and understand the world, define problems, and develop approaches to strategic and operational challenges. However, the Army’s approach as expressed in publications and doctrine encourages the development of complicated, unsupported, and unfalsifiable hypotheses. The risk is that the Army will act on incorrect assumptions and develop plans that are fragile.

China’s social credit systems and public opinion: Explaining high levels of approval

A variety of commercial and local government social credit systems (SCSs) are now being implemented in China in order to steer the behavior of Chinese individuals, businesses, social organizations, and government agencies. Previous research finds that these SCSs are employed by the Chinese state as “surveillance infrastructure” and for social management. This article focuses on a different angle: the public’s opinion of SCSs. Based on a cross-regional survey, the study finds a surprisingly high degree of approval of SCSs across respondent groups. Interestingly, more socially advantaged citizens (wealthier, better-educated, and urban residents) show the strongest approval of SCSs, along with older people. While one might expect such knowledgeable citizens to be most concerned about the privacy implications of SCS, they instead appear to embrace SCSs because they interpret it through frames of benefit-generation and promoting honest dealings in society and the economy instead of privacy-violation.

Life Satisfaction of Rural Migrant Workers in Urban China: The Roles of Community Service Participation and Identity Integration

China is home to approximately 245 million rural-to-urban migrant workers. The influx of migrants into urban areas has posed various challenges for local social service systems. Recently, increasing number of community services have been developed to meet the growing service demands from the migrant population. However, whether increase in community service use results in improved wellbeing among migrant workers remains critically unexplored. As such, this study examines the role of community service use in migrant workers’ life satisfaction and the potential mediating effect of identity integration in Shenzhen, China. Bootstrapped models were adopted to examine relationship among variables. Drawing from a sample of 1,087 rural-to-urban migrant workers, we found that community service use is positively correlated with both identity integration and migrant workers’ life satisfaction. Moreover, identity integration served as a partial mediator between community service use and life satisfaction. The mediating effect of identity integration was found to increase with age. This study highlights that diverse services should be implemented to address divergent needs of migrants in different age groups. Community service can also serve as a vehicle to foster integration among migrant workers in host communities, especially for older age groups. Future studies may further investigate the relationships between community social capital, community social support, quality of community-based organization and frequency of service use so as to optimize the life satisfaction of migrant workers.

The Horizontal Constitutions

The goal of this paper is to describe the “horizontalization” of state/national constitutions in a scenario of globalizing law, where the Supranational World Order Legislative Policy Modelling (WOLPM) is dramatically redesigning the traditional hierarchy of legal sources, whose top were with state–national constitutions. The current scenario is radically different and state/national constitutions are no longer frameworks for law-making; rather they are part of a larger frame, but rather framed in a different framework. This new framework is vertically shorter and horizontally much longer, as transnational and supranational treaties are shifting the sovereignty is going more and more supranational and global; as a consequence, a condition of interdependence is emerging, which shapes a non-reversible network of networks. This horizontalization process evolves the innovative power of the legislative function in the global law system; this system is the one which can proactively support an innovation policy viable to the key challenges of our times. Furthermore, this power shift leverages and increases the quality of democracy: by a dramatical downsizing of the meso and the micro organizational Wiliamson’s costs -which can also facilitate a direct link between the macro and the psycho-social levels- an evolution seems to be emerging from different peoples to one People (eg: from the EU member states peoples to the EU people). A better comprehension of this evolution is based upon two theoretical grounds. On one side, Lawrence Friedman’s works about the globalization of culture and technology, which is also recombining social, political and religious traditions in the globalized law making process. On the other side the Luhmann-Teubner’s vision based on the concept of Law System (just one and global all over the planet); in this case, a Global Law System is implies two evolutive directions: a vertical direction, which means increasing law production at the top of this System; and a horizontal direction, consisting of structural couplings with local juridical social systems. These couplings can also show conflictual features. As a matter of fact, as Teubner points out, there is a crisis in traditional constitutionalism, that is caused by transnationalization. As a matter of fact, traditional constitutionalism is Nation-state based and hardly can it accept supranational sovereignties. Furthermore, tendencies are strong among social systems, to put themselves outside the state and to engender individual or institutional autonomy. In order to foresee the possible outcome of this trend, the best theoretical tool is the system/environment distinction. This notions draws a neat distinction between a more and more formalized and unified global world order (through supranational treaties as mentioned above) and a more and more turbulent and noisy environment, consisting of strong protests. According to systemic theory, irritation and resonance might make the law system oscillate, nevertheless the noisy environment has no construction function.

Small Parks as Local Social–Ecological Systems Contributing to Conservation of Small Isolated and Ephemeral Wetlands

Publicly owned lands designated as parks can be important tools for biodiversity conservation. In the U.S., state parks are afforded direct protection from localized development pressures, which may help to protect small, ecologically significant ecosystems such as isolated and ephemeral wetlands and headwater streams. We used the South Carolina State Park system as a case study to examine the structural and functional differences between small wetlands located inside vs. outside of parks in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge ecoregions in order to evaluate the efficacy of a small-scale conservation framework for protecting small, under-protected freshwater ecosystems. We evaluated data relating to water quality, wetland structure, and biodiversity parameters collected between January 2010 and June 2011. Our results indicated marked differences between park and non-park wetlands, with park wetlands having shallower depths, higher abundances of sensitive benthic macroinvertebrate taxa, and lower average tolerance values consistent with more sensitive macroinvertebrate species and higher water quality. These findings demonstrate that state parks can serve to protect freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. State parks, thus, represent a preexisting network of protected areas to aid in the protection of localized habitats, such as small isolated and ephemeral wetlands, that may not otherwise receive the conservation protection warranted by their ecological function.

Will place-based leadership be the right remedy for health and social care?

This article argues that developing more sustainable and effective local health and social care systems by taking a place based approach requires a new model for leadership development. Leaders will now be required to share power, contradicting a preceding social policy that emphasised competition – policy now places greater emphasis on collaboration and a ‘systems approach’. Leaders in this new environment will need to build mutual respect and trusting relationships in order to address complex issues – rather than thinking they can be managed from one organisation's perspective. This will require conscious development and an understanding of the cultural tensions involved. Place-based leadership development across health and social care systems offers leaders an opportunity to work on themselves, together, and it is this collective journey of discovery that creates the necessary leadership capability development as social capital, enabling place based public value to be achieved.

Groundwater Irrigation Management and the Existing Challenges from the Farmers’ Perspective in Central Iran

The sustainable management of natural resources, and particularly groundwater, presents a major challenge in arid regions to ensure security of water supply and support agricultural production. In many cases, the role of smallholder farmers is often neglected when managing irrigated water and land processes. However, management decisions have a major impact on farmers’ livelihoods, and it is essential: first, to recognise the crucial role of regional and local social, political and economic systems; and second, to integrate farmers’ perspectives in the governance and management of local groundwater practices. This is particularly important as the ways in which arid region farmers use land and water have wider implications for land degradation and salinization. This paper uses a community-based approach to identify and examine the social, economic and cultural dimensions to groundwater irrigation systems from the perspective of local farmers in central Iran. The paper utilises interviews with local farmers and water agencies in Iran to reflect on their respective roles within the irrigation system and in developing management plans for the sustainable use of groundwater. Through social research, we investigate the reasons why farmers might reject government irrigation management schemes and outline how local problems with land degradation and salinization and reduced water availability have arisen as a result of changing management policies. In conclusion, we identify future challenges and consider appropriate future management strategies.

Co-evolution of Forestry Policy Development and System-Social Community

Developing forests is synonymous with building communities around the forest. Forest destruction is related to the behavior of people living around the forest. Society will always adjust its life to the changes that occur around it in the process of adaptation to be able to live its life. The study found that the failure of forest management was caused by the failure of the process of adaptation of forest management policies with local communities' practice traditions and social systems. Forestry development policy often leads to exclusion of the state to the already living and resident communities in the areas established by the development of the forestry sector. This fact raises the issue of conflict of interest between the surrounding community and the forest manager. On the basis of the findings of this study I suggest; To prevent degradation and deforestation, a new paradigm of forest management systems is required which retains the ecological, economic and socio-cultural functions of local communities as subjects and uses local knowledge and culture as the basis for their governance, and involves other sector commodities to increase their economic value (incentives).

TO A QUESTION OF INTENSIFICATION OF INTERACTION, SOCIAL INTEGRATION, AND COMPLICATION OF CONTRADICTIONS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Traditional approach in actual sociology is consideration of integration processes in contemporary society. The basis of this approach is growth of number of social communications, complication of structure of society and increase in dynamics of interaction. All this in total represents one of signs of integration; however the fact of his existence doesn't demonstrate real development of integration processes. The analysis of a situation demonstrates that now it is possible to speak about integration only in narrow sense. Actually, a reverse side of increase in intensity of socialcommunicative processes is activization of the destructive potential put in contradictions of interests and other distinctions of participants of interaction. The increase in intensity of interaction which isn't interfaced to formation of compliance between participants of social communication leads to increase in intensity of all range of consequences of the formed social relations. As a result besides the planned results growth of conflictness which is shown in various forms of realization of the destructive potential connected with internal contradictions of public structure takes place. This principle is fair as in the analysis of internal processes in local social systems, and by consideration of global tendencies of interaction. In article the problem of the mediated influence of participants of social interaction at each other is considered, formulation of the question about negative consequences of social interaction is made, distinction of an intensification of interaction and social integration is carried out.

The Technologies of Performing Social Services in Russia by Social Service Institutions (Evidence from Kursk and Belgorod Regions)

Social service is an integral part of social protection of the sick, the handicapped, the senior, etc. It relates to many categories of citizens who need governmental help. Providing this support acts as a guarantee for observance of social, human, freedom and civil rights. The social service system is organized in such a way that enables to provide help for everyone who needs it. Only in this case it meets the interests of the society.In Kursk and Belgorod regions the local social service systems are presented by various types of institutions. In the Kursk region these institutions are: general and psychoneurological care homes, social rehabilitation centres for minors, social assistance centres for families and children, medical social rehabilitation centers, social shelters for children and adolescents, social professional centre. In the Belgorod region these are: general and psychoneurological care homes, social rehabilitation centres for minors, women’s refuges, child development and socialization centres, rehabilitation centre for children and adolescents with limited health capacities, geriatric center, child guidance and family counselling centre, a special care-home for the senior and the handicapped. The comparative analysis of social service systems in Kursk and Belgorod regions revealed that in both regions their social service systems are fully formed and provide services in institutional, non-institutional and partially inpatient forms. The network of social service institutions in Kursk and Belgorod regions is widely presented by various types of institutions, but in the Belgorod region it is wider and has a bigger variety of the institutions. It is likely to be explained by the attention that local authorities pay to this problem and the funding level for it from the regional budget.

A new flood type classification method for use in climate change impact studies

Flood type classification is an optimal tool to cluster floods with similar meteorological triggering conditions. Under climate change these flood types may change differently as well as new flood types develop. This paper presents a new methodology to classify flood types, particularly for use in climate change impact studies. A weather generator is coupled with a conceptual rainfall-runoff model to create long synthetic records of discharge to efficiently build an inventory with high number of flood events. Significant discharge days are classified into causal types using k-means clustering of temperature and precipitation indicators capturing differences in rainfall amount, antecedent rainfall and snow-cover and day of year. From climate projections of bias-corrected temperature and precipitation, future discharge and associated change in flood types are assessed. The approach is applied to two different Alpine catchments: the Ubaye region, a small catchment in France, dominated by rain-on-snow flood events during spring, and the larger Salzach catchment in Austria, affected more by rainfall summer/autumn flood events. The results show that the approach is able to reproduce the observed flood types in both catchments. Under future climate scenarios, the methodology identifies changes in the distribution of flood types and characteristics of the flood types in both study areas. The developed methodology has potential to be used flood impact assessment and disaster risk management as future changes in flood types will have implications for both the local social and ecological systems in the future.