Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2017 (97. évfolyam)

2017 / 3. szám - TRANSNATIONAL EFFORTS - Oroszi Viktor György - Tamás Enikő Anna - Tamás Beatrix: Flood management education in the Danube basin - needs and challenges

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Hidrológiai Közlöny (Hungarian Journal of Hydrology) 2017. 97. évf. 3. sz.

management and civil protection. Therefore, both the education of the general public - provided mainly at the elementary and secondary school levels - and postgraduate courses and trainings for experts working at the water directorates or at the civil protection field is essential to reduce losses in any river basin.

EDUCATION IN FLOOD MANAGEMENT,

FLOODS IN EDUCATION

Knowledge on floods starts with local experience which is space-specific, as it is the complex of adaptive responses of inhabitants to change (e.g. hazard history, as the location, intensity, frequency and duration of previous hazards, the interpretational knowledge of changes in animal behaviours as early warning signals, knowledge of the safest and fastest roads, life stories about impowerishment processes of households). Communities which have been living with natural hazards for generations coped and adapted to minimise negative effects. Local knowledge can contribute to safety by giving local advice on safe locations for construction sites (buildings and roads) and if used together with conventional knowledge for hazard mapping. Local knowledge can also be used in information: in early warning systems, surveys, and other inventories to verify information, as well as to help adapt communication strategies to local understanding and perceptions, and to integrate local values into the decisionmaking processes. The incorporation of local knowledge into disaster preparedness and management activities can be made cost-effective, efficient, and sustainable. We all have local knowledge, but it may differ by ethnicity, clan, gender, age, sex, socio-economic group, and educational level. Local knowledge is dynamic, it is both created and lost over time. It depends more on memory, intuition and the senses than on the intellect. It is always gained through experience and is transferred from one generation to the next (Shrestha et al. 2011).

The example of Tilly Smith shows why education in small communities is needed. She was a 11 years old British school-girl in 2004 when she warned others before a tsunami arrived at Phuket shoreline (Thailand) during her holiday recognizing the signs of the phenomenon based on her geography lessons studied two weeks before and saving hundreds of people (UNIS DR Education 2017).

General public is often involved too late into the planning process, however, affected people are obliged to obtain information to implement mitigation measures. Therefore risk dialogue should be carried out properly, integrating local interest, experiences and knowledge into locally adapted risk management strategies. The importance of this has become evident between the floods of 2002 and 2013 in Germany. Probably due to intense flood experience as well as improved risk and emergency communication residents, businesses and authorities were better prepared (Thieken et al. 2016). Local actions like “Memo’Risks” developed and applied in the Loire River catchment (France) have shown a good example. The initiative brought together local government and schools in order to survey local disaster risk situations and awareness. Thus, it not only supported the knowledge and

motivation bases of pupils, but it also documented the risk perception and local knowledge about hazards (Komac 2013). Partners from the five affected countries of the recently running JOINTISZA project - aiming to prepare the update of integrated river basin management plan of the Tisza catchment area - are also aware of public involvement, organizing stakeholder seminar to train the planners and testing Shared Vision Planning (SVP) methods during the planning process (JOINTISZA 2017).

Several Danube countries have realized the importance of flood protection related education as a non-structural preventive measure in the past 15 years. Education has been identified as a gap in flood management, highlighted by experts in relevant documents as well.

Integration of flood protection research knowledge into graduate and post-graduate education programmes and trainings for professional engineers, the staff of local authorities landuse planners and rescue teams was a core part of the “best practice document” presented at the Water Directors meeting already in 2003. In order to reach wellpreparedness of communities, the education and transfer of knowledge about flood risk with the availability of flood hazard maps and other appropriate information is essential (.IWDM2003).

The EU Floods Directive also does not mention education directly and says in Article7 that flood risk management plans shall address all aspects of flood risk management focusing on prevention, protection and preparedness considering appropriate non-structural initiatives like flood forecasting, early warning systems, sustainable land use practices and improved water retention. As a provision since 2007 every flood risk management plan in the EU should contain a summary of measures and their prioritisation.

EUSDR PA5 experts started an on-site survey in the Danube countries in 2013-2014 (following the exceptional floods of the region) to collect what lessons have been learnt and compile proposals regarding transboundary challenges of floods, also to be prepared for the financial framework 2014-2020 of the EU and to help complement the Danube flood risk management plan with projects ideas. All the 14 countries and states/lands were consulted and the result was summarised in the Danube Region Operative Flood Management and Cooperation Programme (DR Oper&Cooper) which was adopted by the EUSDR PA5 Steering Group in April 2015. Out of the seven measures the sixth identified the importance of the development of an education/training network in the Danube river basin (EUSDR PA5 2015).

In Annex 2 of the first Flood Risk Management Plan of the Danube River Basin (DFRMP) 12 countries highlighted the need towards trainings for experts and education of the inhabitants in 2015 (Table 1). The list of transboundary projects considered supportive to the implementation of the plan were also listed as it was required by the Flood Directive. This list also contains the measures of DR Oper&Cooper including the establishment of an education/training network in the basin (ICPDR 2015a).