Inadequate risk management and excessive response to flood disaster create unexpected land use changes and potential local conflicts

Abstract

Our case study focuses on the April 2006 flood event on the Danube River, which inundated Rast village in Romania’s Dolj County. This was partially due to the highest water level ever registered on the Danube River since the beginning of hydrological observations. However, we consider that the inappropriate management on the part of several levels of government and their regulatory agencies exacerbated the outcome. We initially explore how they created a quasi-artificial flood disaster. This, in turn, led to considerable adverse consequences, resulting from the poor analysis of existing options and from the taken emotional actions. We particularly contest two decisions taken by the management authorities. One concerns the decision to breach a critical dyke during the flood, which led to the inundation of Rast. The second was the post-crisis plan to relocate the village. Both actions appear in retrospect to have been unwise and we explain why this is the case. We also note significant changes in agricultural land use and environmental conditions within the commune’s administrative boundaries, together with the emergence of legal uncertainties related to land use, and additional problems in the adequate public service provision in the post-flood period. Our methodologies involved questionnaire surveys of affected people and the local authorities, the analysis of available statistical data, the analysis of land-use changes using CORINE Land Cover data, and a variety of field observations. The analysis of the processes driving such outcomes lead us to discuss the theoretical patterns of inappropriate and oversized responses to such disasters and a proposed schema of types of responses to critical natural events.