Preliminary research on adaptability of municipalities in the sub-basin of Nysa Kłodzka using multidimensional comparative analysis

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present a preliminary assessment of the adaptability of Polish municipalities to the flood hazard. In the conducted studies municipalities were understood not only as basic local government units in Poland, but also as social-ecological systems. The study covered 18 municipalities situated in the sub-basin of Nysa Kłodzka. This region has suffered from numerous floods in the past, and adverse consequences in the form of material losses as well as in human victims let us acknowledge this part of Poland to be one of the most threatened by floods. The analyses used data available in the public domain (mainly from the Statistics Poland database; Polish abbr. GUS) as well as obtained using the questionnaire created for this purpose. The preliminary studies on adaptability of the municipalities in the area of the sub-basin of Nysa Kłodzka have been conducted using the data form the period of 2010-2016. The starting point for conducting a multidimensional comparative analysis, and at the same time the selection of 110 gained diagnostic variables describing 18 determinants of SES adaptability to flood hazard was the identification of 2 main factors determining SES’ adaptability (its adaptive potential and adaptive capacity), and 4 categories of determinants of its adaptability (human capital and social potential, financial potential, ecological potential and organizational potential). The initial selection of the diagnostic variables was made using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The proposed logic of aggregation and selection of these variables can be adapted for the adaptability studies on other territorial units and for study on their adaptability to different kinds of threats.