A way forward to enhance the coping capacity of communities threatened by floods: the Dajç experience (Northern Albania)

Veronica Pazzi (a), Stefano Morelli (a) & Francesco Fidolini (a)
(a) Department of Earth Sciences , University of Firenze, Via La Pira, 4, 50121, Florence, Italy. Phone: +39 0552757783. E-mail: veronica.pazzi@unifi.it

The greatest disaster threats in Albania are those related to severe earthquakes and large-scale riverine floods. The exposure of Albanian population to these occurrences is mainly due to underdevelopment, poor infrastructures and communications, a rapid urban growth and a range of environmental factors. Structural interventions are the most effective to reduce the disaster related to these risks, but they are costly. However, in the absence of adequate financial resources, different low-cost strategies can be used to offer effective measures of risk prevention to local institutions. The study area, the Dajç municipality 12 km SW of Shkoder (Northern Albania), was severely affected by flood episodes in the last few years. The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how basic information to evaluate the flood vulnerability can be obtained using relatively simple and low-cost technologies and methods.

coping capacity, flood vulnerability, HEC-RAS, low-cost technologies.