Supervisors info:
Διακάκης Μιχαήλ, Γεωλόγος Εξωτερικός Συνεργάτης, Υποψήφιος Διδάκτωρ,Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Nowadays, the flooding events are intense and put it together with their severity and their possible increase in frequency, due to climate change, pose a significant threat to human life. Taking into consideration urbanization, unnecessary urban construction, closure of streams and total degradation of the natural environment system, it becomes clear that floods can cause, not only a significant number of catastrophes but also deaths.
In our time, independent of technological development, infrastructure upgrades, funding and execution of flood and corrosion projects, implementation of flood risk assessment and management legislation, there are still many casualties, even, in the developed countries. For instance, Mandra’s flood event in Greece (Mandra flood with 24 deaths) or elsewhere in Europe (Prague in June 2013 with 11 deaths) illustrate the severity of the impact of floods.
Various reasons are examined by the bibliography to explain how the dangerous situations are developed. Which is the responsibility of the State, the Management Agencies and the individuals about prevention of the danger? Which actions are actually contributed to the creation of these events?
In recent years, there have been indications that a number of victims introduce dangerous behaviors around flood waters, either by disregarding police and fire department, or by ignoring roadside signage, or the orders from security forces.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the attitude of flood victims by examining the elements of international bibliography, as an overall assessment of relevant behaviors in relation to other factors that may have an impact.
Keywords:
floods, flood mortality, flash floods, dangerous behavior around floodwaters, risk taking behavior, motor vehicles and flood deaths
