Proposed Flood Protection Measures

Perceived change in climate over the world begins to be negatively felt in our geographical latitudes, too. Increasing global surface temperature, extreme temperature differences in a short period cause so far unprecedented progress of the weather: dry periods with deficient rainfall are followed by periods of excessive rainfall that is impossible to be absorbed and accumulated by the surface, which causes hydrological cycle disruption in nature. More and more often there occur such rainfalls: in small river basins enormous amount of water fall to the ground and runs down unrestrainedly over surface into watercourses causing so-called flash floods with inconceivable material and moral consequences.

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National Climate Change Strategies Should Target the Roots of the Problem

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It is crucial to harmonize climate policy with key national policies – such as sustainable development, energy, transport, agriculture and rural development, forestry, biodiversity, water and spatial planning – and so creating a strong, coherent and holistic environmental policy framework, which is able to identify and effectively tackle the drivers behind systemic problems. In order to really target the drivers, an economic paradigm shift is needed, resulting in new socio-economic macro-structure with lower demand for natural resources and space.

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The Necessity of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change at National Level

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The global climate system is determined by the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere, and is extremely complex with a lot of non-linear connections, the understanding of which requires system-thinking. In spite of that, climate policy in most cases deals solely with the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, although alteration of biogeochemical cycles through excessive use of natural resources and decrease of natural surface cover due to degradation of ecosystems are, though very hard to tackle, just as determining causes of climate change.

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Environmental Impact Assessment and European Community Law

Jezero Bled

Environmental law is a new, rapidly evolving, and increasingly important area of jurisprudence. Although various industrialising countries introduced environmental controls in the nineteenth century, environmental law only began to emerge as a discrete subject in the late nineteen-sixties. In North America and Europe, early environmental law tended to follow the traditional “command and control” approach. This form of regulation is sometimes said to be “top-down”. It is based on a state-centred vision of environmental protection. A government will typically establish performance standards for polluters and allow them to buy licences. Polluters who fail to comply with the conditions specified in their licences may be prosecuted or face civil actions.

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