Household labelling for flash flood emergency management (Chrastava town, Northern Czechia)

ABSTRACT

Flash floods are natural hazards that may last only a few hours, but their sudden onset often results in severe impacts on society and the environment. Therefore, efforts to reduce flash flood-related losses have primarily focused on the compilation of emergency operation plans (EOPs). Conversely, there have been only a few attempts to provide cartographic representations of EOPs in order to show the spatial context of crisis operations. In the present map and its commentary, we describe a pilot study of flash flood household labelling for use in emergency operations carried out in Chrastava town, Northern Czechia. Analyses of existing geographical databases, together with detailed field surveys, have been performed to map relevant characteristics of 1110 buildings in terms of their location, function, number of residents and degree of flood hazard, as well as the presence of flood-protection measures. The map sheet is composed of the main map (overview of flood extent and impacts) and three supplementary maps (technical and social vulnerability of buildings), and the map key is designed to facilitate strategic planning and directing of emergency operations in the study area.

KEYWORDS:

• Flood
• labelling
• household
• emergency management
• Czechia

Acknowledgements

The administration of Chrastava municipality is acknowledged for discussion on emergency management design. Language Editing Services provided revisions to the language and style.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by project no. [GA16-02521S], ‘Individual and organizational decision-making in environmental risk reduction: determinants, motivations and efficiency,’ which was supported by the Czech Science Foundation [Grantová Agentura České Republiky], and project no. [UJEP-SGS-173-02-01], ‘Institutional analyses of Flood EOPs in the Czech Republic’.