Flood policy in Spain: a review for the period 1983-2013
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the main changes regarding flood policy in Spain during the period 1983-2013, that is right after the large and very damaging episodes of 1982-1983 in Valencia, Catalonia and the Basque Country.
Design/methodology/approach
This is above all a review paper that looks retrospectively at flood policy in Spain during the past three decades. In order to collect and organize the information the authors follow the methodology of the IPCC regarding vulnerability studies. That is, the authors provide evidence for an overall assessment of the evolution of exposure, sensibility and adaptive capacity to floods in Spain for the period of reference. The authors approach these issues through the own experience and expertise on this subject as noted in the reference list.
Findings
While exposure to floods has generally increased (especially after the massive growth of urbanization in flood prone land of the 1990s and early 2000s) overall flood policy has contributed to make Spain less sensible and more adapted to floods. Still some issues remain unsolved especially the control of urban growth and the adaptation of the built environment to floods. For these reasons absolute economic losses from floods may continue to be important in the future (perhaps more so with climate change) even though, overall, Spanish society may have become less vulnerable and therefore more resilient than in the past.
Originality/value
The paper provides a retrospective study and assessment of policies taken and their changes regarding floods at a national level over a long period of time (30 years) which is a theme still relatively little explored in the scientific literature on this hazard.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Spanish CICYT under Grants Nos CS02012-36997-C02-01, CS02012-36997-C02-02 and CSO2013-41262-P. The authors would like to thank Alfonso Najera for providing data on the economic valuation of flood episodes.
Citation
Olcina, J., Sauri, D., Hernández, M. and Ribas, A. (2016), "Flood policy in Spain: a review for the period 1983-2013", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 41-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-05-2015-0108
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited