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Household Adaptation Strategies to Climate Extremes Impacts and Population Dynamics: Case Study from the Czech Republic

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Part of the book series: Global Migration Issues ((IOMS,volume 6))

Abstract

This chapter deals with the state of household adaptation strategies in a region frequently affected by climate extremes, specifically floods occurred from 1997 to 2012 in selected rural municipalities in the Bečva river basin in the North-Eastern part of the Czech Republic. We used quantitative methods, based on a survey of 605 households to find out ways of adaptation measures of household members, including potential for migration. The first, we found increased intensity and frequency of the impacts of climate extremes in the form of floods over the last two decades. Further, we recognized various responses to these extreme events applied by household, mainly some adaptation strategies outside houses, although our findings showed that households tend to repair damage instead of implementing costly adaptation measures. Our research also revealed that migration due to climate extremes did not play a significant role as an adaptation measure in the researched area, people moved out only in a few cases. In addition, our research showed a link between difficulty to migrate and some social consequences, meaning that the increasing occurrence of floods is a fairly serious problem for residents who cannot leave, even if they want to, because they had limited opportunities for resettlement. Nevertheless, we recognized commuting for work as a population dynamics adaptation strategy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For higher precision, all maps are shown in Křovák cartographic projection. The exception is the map of Europe, which is displayed in the standard World Geodetic System 1984.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to express our gratitude to the respondents who shared their information and the interviewers who patiently collected their answers.

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Correspondence to Robert Stojanov .

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Stojanov, R., Duží, B., Kelman, I., Němec, D., Procházka, D. (2016). Household Adaptation Strategies to Climate Extremes Impacts and Population Dynamics: Case Study from the Czech Republic. In: Milan, A., Schraven, B., Warner, K., Cascone, N. (eds) Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy Responses. Global Migration Issues, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42922-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42922-9_5

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