Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 12, 23–35, 2012 www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/12/23/2012/ Natural Hazards doi:10.5194/nhess-12-23-2012 and Earth © Author(s) 2012. CC Attribution 3.0 License. System Sciences Torrential floods and town and country planning in Serbia R. Ristic´1, S. Kostadinov1, B. Abolmasov2, S. Dragicevi´ c´3, G. Trivan4, B. Radic´1, M. Trifunovic´5, and Z. Radosavljevic´6 1University of Belgrade Faculty of Forestry, Department for Ecological Engineering in Protection of Soil and Water Resources Kneza Višeslava 1, 11030 Belgrade, Serbia 2University of Belgrade Faculty of Mining and Geology, Belgrade, Serbia 3University of Belgrade Faculty of Geography, Belgrade, Serbia 4Secretariat for Environmental Protection of Belgrade City, Belgrade, Serbia 5Institute of Transport and Traffic Engineering-Center for Research and Designing, Belgrade, Serbia 6Republic Agency for Spatial Planning, Belgrade, Serbia Correspondence to: R. Ristic´ (
[email protected]) Received: 12 August 2011 – Revised: 8 November 2011 – Accepted: 14 November 2011 – Published: 2 January 2012 Abstract. Torrential floods are the most frequent natu- pogenic extreme phenomena all around the world makes us ral catastrophic events in Serbia, causing the loss of hu- pay more attention to their environmental and economic im- man lives and huge material damage, both in urban and ru- pacts (Guzzetti et al., 2005; Schmidt et al., 2006; Lerner, ral areas. The analysis of the intra-annual distribution of 2007). Floods, in all their various forms, are the most fre- maximal discharges aided in noticing that torrential floods quent natural catastrophic events that occur throughout the have a seasonal character.