Resumen de A safe space of rural areas in the context of the occurrence of extreme weather events—A case study covering a part of the Euroregion Baltic
Ongoing climate change was first noticed by the public a few decades ago. The factual occurrence of such a change and its impact on the space were confirmed by both results of scientific research and economic assessments carried out for a variety of economic purposes. The economic sectors whose activities are based on natural weather conditions are most vulnerable to the effects of ongoing climate change. An increase in the number of extreme events, and primarily of their effects, are deeply felt by, primarily, the agricultural community. The study focused on the agricultural sector involved in crop cultivation within a part of the Euroregion Baltic. For analyses, statements on financial losses in agriculture, suffered in the years 2010–2014 and caused by extreme weather events (inter alia rainstorm, hail, cyclones, lightning strike, flood, spring frost, drought, the negative effects of over-wintering of crops), were used. By applying the theory of scale-free networks, a network of relationships was constructed, which allowed the authors to indicate sensitive places vulnerable to financial consequences of such events in rural areas.
The European Union policy which also embraces the fragment of the part of the Euroregion Baltic under study aims at broadening the range of policy instruments which are to affect changes to land use patterns in order to find the balance between the outcomes of agricultural production and the adverse effects brought about by this production to natural ecosystems. This direction of activities is also aimed at preventing the effects of climate change. The constructed scale-free network model indicated that not all agricultural areas are equally affected by the financial effects of the occurrence of extreme events. An analysis enabled the indication of the most vulnerable (sensitive) locations, the so-called hubs, while the investigated topology of the system leads to the conclusion that financial losses in the current sensitive locations may increase to an unimaginable level. Knowledge of the nature of the system, however, allows one to affect its evolution. Targeting of the European Union policy instruments toward the areas most affected by the consequences of extreme weather events will make agricultural producers less vulnerable to them and strengthen the farmer community’s trust in the expected financial results of the farm work.
