Municipality’s financial potencial and policy of flood risk management in Poland

Abstract

For Polish municipalities – basic units of local government (LGU), flood constitutes a significant source of material losses resulting both from flood damages and from the costs of restoring the regular functioning of the municipalities after the disaster is gone. Authors stated a thesis that the municipality, despite its constitutional obligations connected with providing the safety for its citizens, is not capable to bear the financial burden shaping the flood protection system in the basin. It is, however, due to support the flood protection system by strengthening its adaptive potential and adaptive capacity for efficient limitation of adverse consequences of flood. To justify this thesis, the financial condition of the municipalities threatened with flood was compared to the size of potential flood losses for floods of the medium probability of occurrence (p = 1%). Authors have shown that the municipality’s structure, more than its budget size decides about its financial potential. Especially the municipality’s own revenue is an evidence for the determined financial potential, at the same time, it can be a source of the undertaken actions in order to increase the level of the municipality’s adaptability in the context of flood hazard. Conducted analyses allow to shape the flood risk management policy, both at the municipal level and on a national scale.