Adaptive management of protection and rescue operations related to floods and torrents: Adapting to flood risk

Abstract

Floods and torrents present one of the gravest dangers to people and the environment and seriously affect the socio-economic and technical and technological development and sustainability of natural resources. Electronic media report about their frequency almost daily. A number of large-scale floods in the world, including the territory of our country, accompanied by massive material damage and loss of human lives, have brought these phenomena into the focus of public interest. However, there is no complete protection against floods and torrents in the world of today. The risk from large quantities of water and the failure of the protection system cannot be avoided because they are accidental values. Besides, it is impossible to design the system of protection for any quantity of water. That is why many countries have lately abandoned the concept of suppressing and controlling floods and torrents, i.e. they have given up the idea of managing such phenomena. The paper therefore presents a model of adaptive managing in the protection and rescue operations related to floods and torrents, which implies adapting to the flooding risk or the principle of 'living with floods'. Namely, following some theoretical considerations related to causes and effects of floods and torrents seen from the geo-spacial, security and technical aspects, the paper presents the elements of a modern integrated system of protection and rescue in cases of floods and torrents, which complies with the national legislation and economic resources, as well as the internationally accepted concepts of sustainable development. The new concept of adaptive management is realized through well-balanced ratio of investment and non-investment activities and reducing the exposure of the population and environment to flood risk. The paper closes with a geo-topographic review related to the topic.

Poplave i bujice predstavljaju jednu od najvećih opasnosti po ljude i životnu sredinu i imaju značajan uticaj na društveno-ekonomski i tehničko-tehnološki razvoj i održivost prirodnih resursa. O njihovoj učestalosti govore gotovo svakodnevno elektronski mediji. Nekoliko velikih poplava u svetu, ali i na našem državnom geo-prostoru, praćene velikim materijalnim štetama i gubicima ljudskih života, uvrstile su te pojave u žižu interesovanja javnosti. Međutim, danas u svetu nema potpune zaštite od poplava i bujica. Rizik od velike vode i otkaza sistema zaštite se ne može izbeći jer su to slučajne veličine. Pored toga, ne može se dimenzionisati sistem zaštite za svaku veliku vodu. Stoga je poslednje vreme u mnogim zemljama sveta napušten stav da se poplave i bujice mogu suzbiti i kontrolisati, tj. da se protiv njih može 'boriti' i u potpunosti upravljati. S tim u vezi, u radu je prezentovan pristup adaptivnog upravljanja zaštitom i spasavanjem od poplava i bujica, tj. prilagođavanje poplavnom riziku ili princip 'živeti sa poplavama'. Naime, u radu su pored teorijskih razmatranja uzroka i posledica poplava i bujica sa geo-prostornog, tehničkog i bezbednosnog aspekta, prezentovani elementi savremenog integrisanog sistema zaštite i spasavanja od poplava i bujica koji se uklapa u nacionalnu legislativu i ekonomske mogućnosti, kao i međunarodno prihvaćene koncepte održivog razvoja. Novi koncept adaptivnog upravljanja ostvaruje se odmerenim odnosom neinvesticionih i investicionih radova i smanjenjem izloženosti stanovništva i atributa životne sredine poplavnom riziku. Na kraju rada dat je geotopografski podsetnik za tretiranu tematiku.