Along with flash floods, landslides are one of the most widespread and damaging natural hazards in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper determines areas susceptible to landslides in the Municipality of Banja Luka (Republika Srpska, northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina). Based on a terrain survey in a 55.4 km2 area, 216 landslides were identified with a total area of 2.9 km2 or 5.2% of the municipality. According to landslide susceptibility modeling, low susceptibility is present from one-quarter to one-half of the territory and very high susceptibility is present from several percentages up to one-third of the territory, depending on the model used. The results may support government mitigation programs and help in developing a landslide hazard and risk assessment model for the area.
A recent forest fire in the Republic of Serbia is discussed concerning classification, legislative framework and fire management, giving a detailed analysis of the forest fire occurrence. Analysing past and predicting future fires are crucial for policy development and forest management practices to prevent and mitigate fires. Fire hazard is discussed through several fire protection and prevention legislative documents. The nonparametric Mann-Kendall test was used to analyse resent forest fire data in an attempt to find causality in occurrences and frequency. The meteorological data and fire statistics provided by the Serbian Hydro-meteorological Service and the Ministry of Interior/Sector for Emergency Management of the Republic of Serbia were used to calculate the Forest Fire Weather Indices, along with deficit or surplus of precipitation for the case study of Tara Mountain. The paper highlights the need for better hierarchical classification of fire hazards and its harmonisation along with standardisations presented by leading international research institutions. A significant correlation between meteorological parameters and forest fire occurrence was found. This opens a possibility for further investigation and analysis of geophysical and anthropogenic driven factors that can influence disaster occurrence.
The paper discusses the definitions of natural disasters and recommends the implementation of definitions and classifications of natural disasters in accordance with those decreed at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and Munich Re insurance Company (Munich RE) for administrative use in the Republic of Serbia. For the Republic of Serbia, the issue of natural disasters is presented both through government documents (e.g. the Law on Emergencies and the National Strategy of the Protection and Rescue in Emergencies) and the survey of the frequency and typology of disasters. Significant discrepancies exist between older and more contemporary classifications of disasters in Serbia. They are especially emphasized in comparison to the CRED and Munich RE classifications and databases. This causes problems in the monitoring, recording and assessment of the effects of natural disasters. It is proposed that definitions be adapted and implemented into legislative and other documents.
The paper discusses the definitions of natural disasters and recommends the implementation of definitions and classifications of natural disasters in accordance with those decreed at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and Munich Re insurance Company (Munich RE) for administrative use in the Republic of Serbia. For the Republic of Serbia, the issue of natural disasters is presented both through government documents (e.g. the Law on Emergencies and the National Strategy of the Protection and Rescue in Emergencies) and the survey of the frequency and typology of disasters. Significant discrepancies exist between older and more contemporary classifications of disasters in Serbia. They are especially emphasized in comparison to the CRED and Munich RE classifications and databases. This causes problems in the monitoring, recording and assessment of the effects of natural disasters. It is proposed that definitions be adapted and implemented into legislative and other documents.
The paper discusses the definitions of natural disasters and recommends the implementation of definitions and classifications of natural disasters in accordance with those decreed at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and Munich Re insurance Company (Munich RE) for administrative use in the Republic of Serbia. For the Republic of Serbia, the issue of natural disasters is presented both through government documents (e.g. the Law on Emergencies and the National Strategy of the Protection and Rescue in Emergencies) and the survey of the frequency and typology of disasters. Significant discrepancies exist between older and more contemporary classifications of disasters in Serbia. They are especially emphasized in comparison to the CRED and Munich RE classifications and databases. This causes problems in the monitoring, recording and assessment of the effects of natural disasters. It is proposed that definitions be adapted and implemented into legislative and other documents.
A recent forest fire in the Republic of Serbia is discussed concerning classification, legislative framework and fire management, giving a detailed analysis of the forest fire occurrence. Analysing past and predicting future fires are crucial for policy development and forest management practices to prevent and mitigate fires. Fire hazard is discussed through several fire protection and prevention legislative documents. The nonparametric Mann-Kendall test was used to analyse resent forest fire data in an attempt to find causality in occurrences and frequency. The meteorological data and fire statistics provided by the Serbian Hydro-meteorological Service and the Ministry of Interior/Sector for Emergency Management of the Republic of Serbia were used to calculate the Forest Fire Weather Indices, along with deficit or surplus of precipitation for the case study of Tara Mountain. The paper highlights the need for better hierarchical classification of fire hazards and its harmonisation along with standardisations presented by leading international research institutions. A significant correlation between meteorological parameters and forest fire occurrence was found. This opens a possibility for further investigation and analysis of geophysical and anthropogenic driven factors that can influence disaster occurrence.
Rainfall is the key factor to understand soil erosion processes, mechanisms, and rates. Most research was conducted to determine rainfall characteristics and their relationship with soil erosion (erosivity) but there is little information about how atmospheric patterns control soil losses, and this is important to enable sustainable environmental planning and risk prevention. We investigated the temporal and spatial variability of the relationships of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield with atmospheric patterns (weather types, WTs) in the western Mediterranean basin. For this purpose, we analyzed a large database of rainfall events collected between 1985 and 2015 in 46 experimental plots and catchments with the aim to: (i) evaluate seasonal differences in the contribution of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield produced by the WTs; and (ii) to analyze the seasonal efficiency of the different WTs (relation frequency and magnitude) related to rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield. The results indicate two different temporal patterns: the first weather type exhibits (during the cold period: autumn and winter) westerly flows that produce the highest rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield values throughout the territory; the second weather type exhibits easterly flows that predominate during the warm period (spring and summer) and it is located on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the cyclonic situations present high frequency throughout the whole year with a large influence extended around the western Mediterranean basin. Contrary, the anticyclonic situations, despite of its high frequency, do not contribute significantly to the total rainfall, runoff, and sediment (showing the lowest efficiency) because of atmospheric stability that currently characterize this atmospheric pattern. Our approach helps to better understand the relationship of WTs on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff and sediment yield with a regional scale based on the large dataset and number of soil erosion experimental stations. ; Spanish Government (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MINECO) and FEDER Projects: CGL2014 52135-C3-3-R, ESP2017-89463-C3-3-R, CGL2014-59946-R, CGL2015-65569-R, CGL2015-64284-C2-2-R, CGL2015-64284-C2-1-R, CGL2016-78075-P, GL2008-02879/BTE, LEDDRA 243857, RECARE-FP7, CGL2017-83866-C3-1-R, and PCIN-2017-061/AEI. Dhais Peña-Angulo received a "Juan de la Cierva" postdoctoral contract (FJCI-2017-33652 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MEC). Ana Lucia acknowledge the "Brigitte-Schlieben-Lange-Programm". The "Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change" (E02_17R) was financed by the Aragón Government and the European Social Fund. José Andrés López-Tarazón acknowledges the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Department of the Economy and Knowledge of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia for supporting the Consolidated Research Group 2014 SGR 645 (RIUS- Fluvial Dynamics Research Group). Artemi Cerdà thank the funding of the OCDE TAD/CRP JA00088807. José Martínez-Fernandez acknowledges the project Unidad de Excelencia CLU-2018-04 co-funded by FEDER and Castilla y León Government. Ane Zabaleta is supported by the Hydro-Environmental Processes consolidated research group (IT1029-16, Basque Government). This paper has the benefit of the Lab and Field Data Pool created within the framework of the COST action CONNECTEUR (ES1306).
Soil degradation by water is a serious environmental problem worldwide, with specific climatic factors being the major causes. We investigated the relationships between synoptic atmospheric patterns (i.e. weather types, WTs) and runoff, erosion and sediment yield throughout the Mediterranean basin by analyzing a large database of natural rainfall events at 68 research sites in 9 countries. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify spatial relationships of the different WTs including three hydro-sedimentary variables: rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield (SY, used to refer to both soil erosion measured at plot scale and sediment yield registered at catchment scale). The results indicated 4 spatial classes of rainfall and runoff: (a) northern sites dependent on North (N) and North West (NW) flows; (b) eastern sites dependent on E and NE flows; (c) southern sites dependent on S and SE flows; and, finally, (d) western sites dependent on W and SW flows. Conversely, three spatial classes are identified for SY characterized by: (a) N and NE flows in northern sites (b) E flows in eastern sites, and (c) W and SW flows in western sites. Most of the rainfall, runoff and SY occurred during a small number of daily events, and just a few WTs accounted for large percentages of the total. Our results confirm that characterization by WT improves understanding of the general conditions under which runoff and SY occur, and provides useful information for understanding the spatial variability of runoff, and SY throughout the Mediterranean basin. The approach used here could be useful to aid of the design of regional water management and soil conservation measures. ; This research was supported by projects funded by the MINECO-FEDER: CGL2014-52135-C3-3-R, CGL2014-59946-R, CGL2015-65569-R, CGL2015-64284-C2-2-R, and PCIN-2017-061/AEI. When this manuscript was first submitted Estela Nadal-Romero and Damià Vericat received a "Ramón y Cajal" postdoctoral contract (RYC-2013-14371 and RYC‐2010‐06264, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MEC). Damià Vericat is now a Serra Húnter Fellow at the University of Lleida. María Fernández-Raga received a "José Castillejo" postdoctoral grant (Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports). Carla Ferreira was supported by a post-doctoral research grant from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (SFRH/BPD/120093/2016). Mariano Moreno-de las Heras received a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contract (IJCI-2015-26463) from the MEC. José Andrés López-Tarazón received a Vicenç Mut postdoctoral fellowship from the Autonomous Balearic Government (CAIB PD/038/2016). José Andrés López-Tarazón and Ramon Batalla also acknowledge the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Department of the Economy and Knowledge of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia for supporting the Consolidated Research Group 2014 SGR 645 (RIUS- Fluvial Dynamics Research Group), and the CERCA Programme. This paper has benefited from the Lab and Field Data Pool created within the framework of the COST action CONNECTEUR (ES1306).
