Disconnected policies and actors and the missing role of spatial planning throughout the risk management cycle

Kalliopi Sapountzaki (), Sylvia Wanczura, Gabriella Casertano, Stefan Greiving, Gavriil Xanthopoulos and Floriana Ferrara

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2011, vol. 59, issue 3, 1445-1474

Abstract: The present work addresses the problem of lack of coordination between policies and actors with joint competence for risk management, i.e., civil protection, spatial planning, and sectoral planning (e.g., forest policy in the case of forest fire risk). Spatial planning in particular is assigned a minor or no role at all though it might perfectly operate as the coordinating policy platform; the reason is that spatially relevant analysis and policy guidance is an omnipresent component of the risk management cycle. However, disconnected risk relevant policies turning a blind eye to spatial planning might cause several adverse repercussions: Breaks in the response-preparedness-prevention-remediation chain (which should function as a continuum), minimal attention to prevention, risk expansion and growth instead of mitigation, lack of synergies between involved actors as well as duplicated or even diverging measures and funding. The authors bear witness to the above suggestions by examining three cases of European (regional and local) risk management systems faced with failures when confronting natural hazards (floods and forest fires). These three systems are embedded in different types of political-administrative structures, namely those of the city of Dortmund (Germany) facing floods, Eastern Attica region (Greece), and Lazio Region (Italy) facing forest fires. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Keywords: Risk management; Forest fire risk; Flash flood risk; Risk management structures; Risk mitigation spatial planning; Risk management funding; Forest fires of the Mediterranean region; Flood risk management in Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11069-011-9843-3

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