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

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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.

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Notes

  1. The RPPR chain consists of the following stages which together make-up the so called disaster (or risk) management cycle (Smith, 1998): (a) Recovery and reconstruction, concerning the long-term activities destined to return an area to “normality” after severe devastation, (b) Pre-disaster or preventive planning covering activities which range from the construction of defensive engineering works to land use planning and elaboration of evacuation plans, (c) Preparedness reflecting alertness immediately before the onset of a hazard, (d) Response referring to reaction activities immediately before and after and (emergency) relief operations.

  2. Wildland-Urban Interface.

  3. The river is known simply as “the Emscher”.

  4. One big project in this field is the so called ‘Phoenix-Lake’ that is fed by a tributary stream of the Emscher River and is conceived also as a high water back up basin for the Emscher.

  5. A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes and forming an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices.

  6. Prefectures have been abolished altogether as a result of the 2010 national reform of the local and regional governance system, known as the “Kallikratis” plan.

  7. In Italy, a prefect (“prefetto”) is the State's representative in a province (“provincia”). His agency is called the “prefettura-ufficio territoriale del governo”.

  8. A “Comunità Montana” is a public body with compulsory membership of municipalities in a mountain area of a defined territory. It might belong to different provinces. The goal is the development of mountain areas.

  9. “Conferimento di funzioni e compiti amministrativi dello Stato alle regioni ed agli enti locali, in attuazione del capo I della legge 15 marzo 1997, no 59”.

  10. The Flächennutzungsplan determines in accordance with § 5 Federal Building Code in a scale of 1: 20.000 the main features of the different kinds of land-use (such as residential areas, industrial zones, open space) for the whole municipality on the basis of the intended urban development and of the predictable need of the municipality. Its designations are internally binding for all parts of the city administration.

  11. Sala operativa unificata permanente.

  12. P.R.G. stands for “Piano Regolatore Generale”, the general land use plan of a given territory-

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Acknowledgments

The work presented above has been realized in the framework of the European project “Linking civil protection and planning by agreement on objectives” (INCA), financed with the contribution of the Civil Protection Financial Instrument of the European Commission (Grant Agreement reference no 070401/2008/507855/SUB/A3). This support is gratefully acknowledged. Further information about the project can be found at http://www.project-inca.eu/.

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Correspondence to Kalliopi Sapountzaki.

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Sapountzaki, K., Wanczura, S., Casertano, G. et al. Disconnected policies and actors and the missing role of spatial planning throughout the risk management cycle. Nat Hazards 59, 1445–1474 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-011-9843-3

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