Programs for Prevention and Management of Natural Disasters in the European Countries of The Larger Area of The Black Sea Basin

• Main Author: Marcel Rusu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Press, Iasi, Romania 2019-06-01
• Series: Present Environment and Sustainable Development
• Subjects: landslides; floods; earthquakes; hazard assessment; risk mitigation
• Online Access: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/pesd.2019.13.issue-1/pesd-2019-0016/pesd-2019-0016.xml?format=INT

The hazards that have cross-border consequences and represent a great problem for communities, become an obstacle to sustainable development and lead to disasters when combined with vulnerability and insufficient capacity to mitigate the risk. A short overview of research already implemented and in progress presents us a shift in systematic evaluation of the hazards and disasters at local and areal level. Hazard assessment of natural disasters (earthquakes, landslides and floods) on these scales can give results which can be directly used to take right decisions regarding preventive measures and plan effective actions of post-event management. The issue is widely recognized in the european union (eu) implicitly also in the black sea area, and a lot of efforts have already been made to mitigate the effects of disasters, obviously through the formation of numerous eu institution, established organizations and funded projects. The key elements for an effective mitigation of natural disasters are hazard identification and risk assessment, which must be based on scientifically grounded methodologies, reliable and accurate data. Successful resolution of the issues mentioned above will provide the ability to systematically assess natural disasters on regional and local scales, even in cross-border areas, by providing comparable hazard maps that will support the decision-making process in relation to mitigation measures required. The effective way of action against them is by providing applied research and technology transfer between partners in different countries by solving the problems such as lack of reliable information and lack of 'common ground' in the methodologies used to assess natural hazards and adopted procedures for mitigation.