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- Fernandez-Anez, Nieves, et al.
(author)
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Current Wildland Fire Patterns and Challenges in Europe : A Synthesis of National Perspectives
- 2021
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In: Air, Soil and Water Research. - : SAGE Publications. - 1178-6221. ; 14, s. 1-19
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Changes in climate, land use, and land management impact the occurrence and severity of wildland fires in many parts of the world. This is particularly evident in Europe, where ongoing changes in land use have strongly modified fire patterns over the last decades. Although satellite data by the European Forest Fire Information System provide large-scale wildland fire statistics across European countries, there is still a crucial need to collect and summarize in-depth local analysis and understanding of the wildland fire condition and associated challenges across Europe. This article aims to provide a general overview of the current wildland fire patterns and challenges as perceived by national representatives, supplemented by national fire statistics (2009–2018) across Europe. For each of the 31 countries included, we present a perspective authored by scientists or practitioners from each respective country, representing a wide range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds. The authors were selected from members of the COST Action “Fire and the Earth System: Science & Society” funded by the European Commission with the aim to share knowledge and improve communication about wildland fire. Where relevant, a brief overview of key studies, particular wildland fire challenges a country is facing, and an overview of notable recent fire events are also presented. Key perceived challenges included (1) the lack of consistent and detailed records for wildland fire events, within and across countries, (2) an increase in wildland fires that pose a risk to properties and human life due to high population densities and sprawl into forested regions, and (3) the view that, irrespective of changes in management, climate change is likely to increase the frequency and impact of wildland fires in the coming decades. Addressing challenge (1) will not only be valuable in advancing national and pan-European wildland fire management strategies, but also in evaluating perceptions (2) and (3) against more robust quantitative evidence.
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| 2. |
- Kapović Solomun, Marijana, et al.
(author)
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Flood legislation and land policy framework of EU and non-EU countries in Southern Europe
- 2022
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In: WIREs Water. - : Wiley. - 2049-1948. ; 9:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Floods are a widespread natural hazard affecting people and their assets in regions worldwide, including Southern Europe. Besides coastal floods, the Mediterranean region is highly prone to flash floods driven by short but intense precipitation events. With increasing flood risk due to climate change and socio-economic conditions, governments are under pressure to reinforce flood protection measures, which could be a great challenge for the weak economies of non-EU developing countries. This is of particular relevance to achieving international commitments such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Several policy frameworks have been developed to mitigate flooding risk, at European Union (EU) and global level. These frameworks call for a holistic risk reduction approach where governments, institutions, and households are all responsible for reducing risk. In practice, however, gray infrastructure remains the prevailing flood risk management measure in many countries. Incorporation into national legislation and implementation of the EU policy framework will increase constraints and pressures for non-EU countries, particularly those strongly committed to becoming EU members in future. This article provides a comprehensive review of policies and measures implemented in four different southern European countries to mitigate flood hazard, and compares governance aspects between EU (Portugal and Slovenia) and non-EU countries (B&H and Serbia). Understanding governance aspects and the status of flood-related policy implementation is of critical importance in protecting people and enhancing resilience to climate change impacts. Programs of improvement measures and further integration of sustainable water management with other sectoral policies are required to reduce flood risks.
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| 3. |
- Raška, Pavel, et al.
(author)
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Identifying barriers for nature-based solutions in flood risk management : An interdisciplinary overview using expert community approach
- 2022
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In: Journal of Environmental Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0301-4797 .- 1095-8630. ; 310
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The major event that hit Europe in summer 2021 reminds society that floods are recurrent and among the costliest and deadliest natural hazards. The long-term flood risk management (FRM) efforts preferring sole technical measures to prevent and mitigate floods have shown to be not sufficiently effective and sensitive to the environment. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) mark a recent paradigm shift of FRM towards solutions that use nature-derived features, processes and management options to improve water retention and mitigate floods. Yet, the empirical evidence on the effects of NBS across various settings remains fragmented and their implementation faces a series of institutional barriers. In this paper, we adopt a community expert perspective drawing upon LAND4FLOOD Natural flood retention on private land network (https://www.land4flood.eu) in order to identify a set of barriers and their cascading and compound interactions relevant to individual NBS. The experts identified a comprehensive set of 17 barriers affecting the implementation of 12 groups of NBS in both urban and rural settings in five European regional environmental domains (i.e., Boreal, Atlantic, Continental, Alpine-Carpathian, and Mediterranean). Based on the results, we define avenues for further research, connecting hydrology and soil science, on the one hand, and land use planning, social geography and economics, on the other. Our suggestions ultimately call for a transdisciplinary turn in the research of NBS in FRM.
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