Aller au contenu principal

Croatia: Disaster risk mitigation and adaptation project

Pays
Croatie
Sources
World Bank
Date de publication
Origine
Voir l'original

1. Country and Sector Background

Croatia, similar to other countries in the South Eastern and Central Europe, is exposed to a range of natural hazards, particularly, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, extreme temperatures, strong winds, and drought. The country shows warming, drying climate conditions, a trend which together with human activities enhances the risk of forest fires. Wildfires have been particularly dangerous along the Adriatic coast in recent years; in 2007 alone, 2,700 wildfires were reported on the coast.

Croatia's weather hazards are consequential economically. Croatia's coastal zone is affected by the events that strike all the countries on the eastern rim of the Adriatic: Adriatic storms, cyclones making landfall from west to east, and intense bora winds. These Adriatic wind patterns are strongly correlated to very large scale global weather patterns, the Iceland cyclone and the Azores anticyclone. Inland, Croatia shares the weather risks common to the plains of Europe: it is subject to strong convective events and locally arising storms that bring hail, wind and heavy precipitation; indeed, these are a major source of economic damage. Flash floods, water channel overflow in river valleys, and flooding endanger more than 15 percent of the country's inland territory. Zagreb still remains vulnerable to flash floods. Along its mountain zone, Croatia is subject to flash flooding and to severe snowstorms during the winter. Drought has caused economic damage several times in recent decades. Long term trends toward declining runoff and soil moisture as well as warming trend have been observed, especially in Croatia's coastal areas in the warm season.

The country is also prone to seismic risk, particularly in the coastal zone. The Pannonian Basin has typical intraplate seismicity, characterized by rare occurrence of large events. Dubrovnik was destroyed by a powerful earthquake (X on Mercalli scale - MCS) in 1667 and another earthquake, with an intensity of VIII (MCS) shook the Kupa Valley in 1909. The country has also been affected by frequent, but smaller, earthquakes over the past century.

Taking into account Croatia's vulnerability, disaster risk reduction becomes a critical factor for the sustainable economic and social development of the country. The expected growing level of risk, due to the climate change, hazards and vulnerability, will need to be addressed, among others, with disaster risk management measures.

The Government of Croatia is committed to the hazard risk reduction agenda and the country is part of the global and regional platforms for cooperation and support in this area. Croatia is a member of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Hyogo Framework of Action 2005-2015, and the Regional Cooperation Council (formerly under the Stability Pact), and is widely considered as regional leader in the South Eastern Europe, particularly, in the area of wild fires risk management and monitoring and forecasting of meteorological hazards. The Government develops multi-year plans for hazard risk management, including the Protection and Rescue Plan developed by the National Protection and Rescue Directorate (NPRD) which describes the planned activities aimed at strengthening disaster risk management functions.