Treatment of Natural Hazards Within Planning Documents in Serbia in Relation to Climate Change Issues

Corresponding to contemporary international frameworks that promote sustainable development following the adoption of the Paris agreement at the 21st Conference on the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 17 sustainable development goals are specifically promoted, and, in addition to sustainability, resilience and, accordingly, disaster risk reduction. In this respect, the harmonization of global, regional and local development is conditioned by climate change issues. The Republic of Serbia (RS), according to the given scenarios, expects a rise in temperature and long-lasting droughts and fires, as well as more intense precipitations that could result in the occurrence of natural hazards such as floods, escarpments and other similar events. Thus, this paper provides an overview of the current planning framework that addresses the problem of preparing areas for emergency situations and disaster risk reduction with a special reference to these climate change issues and their impact in terms of natural disasters. An overview of selected case studies shows that disaster risk reduction is present in the planning documents—the spatial and urban plans—and that the natural hazards that have appeared within the last decade in Serbia have resulted in the initiating and innovating of the legal and planning bases, as well as concrete adjustments and amendments within the planning documents.