Dealing with water hazards in a changing climate by implementing a sound spatial planning and technical solutions

Abstract

Water based disasters are typical examples of people living in conflict with the environment considering that floods and droughts have enormous environmental, social and economic consequences and it is expected that climate change effects will exacerbate their occurrence and impacts in the future. The vulnerability of populated areas to water natural disaster is partly a consequence of decades of spatial planning policies that have failed to take adequate account of hazards and risks in land use zoning and development decisions. Therefore it is critically important to develop more effective methodologies and tools for incorporating water natural disaster reduction into spatial planning. Meanwhile, management of these events requires an integrated risk management approach that includes prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Furthermore, education, awareness-raising and communication to the general public and economic actors are needed to allow them to deal with transitions and change. This paper is based on the outcomes results from the bilateral project “Development of a Romanian National Climate Adaptation Network (RONET-ADAPT)”, project carried out by “Research within Priority Sectors” Program financed by EEA Grants