Risk-, Disaster-Management & prevention of natural hazards in mountainous and/or forested regions
Each year natural disasters harm people and nature and wreak considerably havoc on the economic activity and infrastructure of the areas concerned. In the regions involved in the RIMADIMA project natural disasters have caused immense damage. Many of the existing structures of risk and disaster management have not yet succeeded in preventing or mitigating major catastrophes. An improvement is required based on a long-term process of transnational co-operation, which also assures the transfer of knowledge and best practices concerning risk and disaster management. After the recent disasters in Romania, the Brasov County Council developed the idea of a common risk and disaster management system which should be developed and implemented together with regions threatened by similar hazards with meteorological (storms, floods, forest fires, droughts) and gravitational causes (landslides, avalanches, rock slides, mudslides, falling rocks). The project partners are situated in forested regions characterised by high mountains or large lakes and are located close to densely populated urban areas, technical infrastructures or industrial zones. Tourism is an important economic factor. However these regions do not only benefit from it because tourism causes damage and generates risks which cannot be countered with a sustainable concept. For these regions the establishment of preservation areas and ban zones represents an essential instrument of spatial development. The principal target of RIMADIMA is the development of preventive measures, emergency plans and plans to combat natural hazards. RIMADIMA aims at setting up a common concept of a decision support system to improve the decision-making process for planning departments and Crisis Management Centres. This will provide possibilities for the interaction of planning and crises intervention. The structure of the concept and the demo version of a DSS (Decision Support System) program can be adapted to other risk types and other CADSES regions.