Project duration: July 2023 – June 2027
Coordinator: Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences
Project partner: Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences, Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology
About the project
In the context of natural hazards and the issue of flood hazard solving for marginalised Roma communities (MRC), catalogued in the Atlas of Roma Communities, an interdisciplinary approach is highly desirable. Combining knowledge of their socio-economic status and physical-geographical parameterisation of flood hazard exposed areas inhabited by Roma communities, either on the border or outside of municipalities, brings a completely new perspective in the evaluation and interpretation of acquired knowledge. In this project, the information about morphological and physical-geographical parameters of the areas inhabited by Roma communities provides the initial knowledge required for predictions related to the extent of flood hazard exposure and its impact on property and human lives.
The project aims are represented as follows:
(i) passportization of flood events and their consequences in Roma settlements;
(ii) identification of the flood risk potential of marginalized Roma concentration on the basis of determination of the degree of flood hazard (physical-geographical parameters) and vulnerability (socio-economic parametres);
(iii) identification of prevailing geomorphological processes and trends in the river channels evolution close to Roma settlements;
(iv) detailed spatio-temporal evolution of selected Roma settlements at local scale in the context of socio-cultural characteristics;
(v) identification of the arrangement structure and level of entropy within the living premises of MRC; (vi) analysis of legislative framework and identification its possibilities to reduce the flood risk of segregated Roma settlements;
(vii) specify the objectives of flood risk management in marginalized Roma settlements;
(viii) analysis of actions taken by municipalities in relation to the land settlement agenda in the context of flood hazard monitoring;
(ix) conceptualizing the environmental justice approach in the debate on social inclusion of marginalized groups (with emphasis on people from MRC) in Slovakia.
Work packages (WP)
WP1: Source data collection and preparation
WP2: Spatial analyses of marginalized Roma communities at national scale
WP3: Assessment of flood risk potential of marginalized Roma communities at regional scale
WP4: Spatio-temporal assessment and social-cultural development of marginalized Roma communities at local scale
WP5: Flood risk perception, its mitigation and development of management strategies
Data and methods
Integrated data sources
- vector/ raster data – Basic Database for Geographic Information System of Slovakia
(provided by Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Authoriy of the Slovak Republic); flood hazard
maps and flood risk maps – water depth and flood lines for reccurence interval (RI) of 5, 10, 50, 100,
1000-years discharge for selected river catchments in Slovakia (provided by Slovak Water
Management Enterprise (SWME)); modification of watercourses/ river training in the Slovak Republic
(SWME); Atlas of slope stability maps of the Slovak Republic and Landscape Atlas of the Slovak
Republic (provided by State Geoglogical Institute of Dionýz Štúr); - remote sensing data with different resolutions – aerial images and orthophotos for years 1949, 2003 and 2017-19 for the whole territory of Slovak Republic and for years among them e.g. 1961, 1965, 1973, 1982, 1986, 1992, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, and other years depending on study locality (provided by Topographic Institute in Banská Bystrica and Eurosense, s r.o.); Airborne Laser-Scanning – LiDAR point cloud (.laz, .las formats) and digital elevation model (DEM 3.5, DEM 5.0 and derivates of DEM from LiDAR)
- hydrological data – occurrence of flood events for the the last 25 years in municpalities of Slovakia (processsing of goverement and news reports from 1996); average annual discharges, maximum annual discharges, RI discharges for selected study rivers and regional annual reports (provided by Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute);
- field work data will be ensured using the GPS Leica GS20 and Leica Zeno5 equipment with RTK corrections and vertical and horizontal accuracy of 20–100 mm to obtain the cross-section elevation parametres.
Methodological approach
The project integrates fluvial-geomorphological approach (WP1 + WP2 + WP4), flood hazard and flood risk assesment (WP1 + WP3 + WP4) and socio-economic analyses (WP1 + WP2 + WP3 + WP4). Whole outputs refer to deliverables related to flood risk perception, its mitigation and the development of management strategies (WP5).
Expected outputs and impact
The outputs of the research can serve as an essential source of information in the process of land settlement in municipalities with the presence of the MRC and can help prevent the possible displacement of people from marginalised backgrounds into areas whose vulnerability will increase in the future. The project also addresses the concept of environmental justice, which, in the context of climate change, is becoming increasingly central to debates over approaches to overcoming social inequalities. The project outcomes will be important for river managers, stakeholders, policymakers, and other authorities working with MRC internationally.
Contact
Principal Investigator:
Ing. Anna Kidová, PhD.
Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences
Email: geogkido@savba.sk