Strategic and Legal Framework of Torrential Flood Control in Some Western Balkan and EU Countries

The EU countries are obliged to harmonize their legislation in the field of flood protection, and thus torrential floods, in accordance with the Water Framework Directive (WFD) which was adopted in 2000. Two EU countries, Austria and Italy, and three Western Balkan countries were selected for the strategic and legal framework of torrential flood control: Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to the legal framework of torrential flood control in EU countries, policies and strategies related to this area were studied for comparative analysis with non-EU countries. The strategic framework for the protection of water resources, and in particular torrential flood protection, is lacking in all Western Balkan countries. The aim of this chapter is to determine the directions of future strategic directions and torrential flood control policies in the Western Balkans based on the experiences of EU countries, advantages and disadvantages of the existing strategic, and legal frameworks.

Assessment of torrential flood susceptibility: Case study - Ukrina River Basin (B&H)

Torrential floods are the most frequent natural catastrophic events in the Republic of Srpska (B&H). The main objective of this study is susceptibility assessment to torrential floods in Ukrina River Basin using Index Based Method (IBM) and Flash Flood Potential Method (FFPI), which operates entirely in a GIS environment. The definition and identification of influencing factors for torrential floods was the first step in the process of developing the Torrential Flood Susceptibility Model (TFSM). According to the results of these models, 54.00% and 40.86% of the Ukrina Basin area is in the categories of strong and very strong susceptibility to torrential floods. The second task was to identify the torrential basins and create the Register and the Cadastre of Torrential Basins in the Ukrina River Basin. After detailed field survey and analyses, 154 torrential basins have been identified, occupying 551.37 km2 of the Ukrina Basin. According to the validation indicators of the Torrential Flood Susceptibility Model, 138 torrential basins are in the category of strong and very strong susceptibility according to Index Based Method, while 112 torrential basins are in the same category of susceptibility according to Flash Flood Potential Index Method, which are very good results of the validation. This paper presents the significant step towards better understanding of the phenomenon of torrential floods in the Republic of Srpska (B&H). The data presented in this paper are also significant to practical issues such as integral water management projects, spatial planning, sustainable land planning and protection of soil, forest ecosystems and environmental protection, sediment management, agriculture and other human activities.