Paper: Flood prevention in Serbia and legal challenges in obtaining the land for flood risk management

Serbia suffered severe flood events in May 2014, which affected 1.6 million people. The Government declared a state of emergency for the territory of the whole country. The total value of the disaster was 1.7 billion Euros. Traditional flood protection measures proved to be insufficient in that extreme flood event, which raised the question of a greater change towards active flood protection measures. Their implementation can require new legal solutions and changes in existing legislation. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze whether existing legal regulations in Serbia in this field provide an adequate basis for the implementation of new flood risk management measures, or some changes are needed. As nature-based solutions require larger areas of land, the question of how that land could be obtained arose. In that regard, pre-emption right and expropriation as possible instruments for acquiring the land were analyzed. It was concluded that they are not suitable and that other solutions should be found. The results of the research showed that there is a necessity for new legislation, especially regarding water storage on private land, as legal lacunae was detected in this field. The paper gives the basis and directions for solving this legal, and consequently practical problem.