# Flash Floods Hazard to the Settlement Network versus Land Use Planning (Lublin Upland, East Poland)
## 5 Discussion
Increasing resilience should primarily involve preventive measures which reduce the exposure of people and property to flood risk by prohibiting or discouraging development in high-risk areas. Direct tools can include land use planning and the insurance system. Of particular importance is increasing risk awareness, which is not helped by the episodic nature of flash floods. Educating the public, local authorities and urban planners about flash floods is a key challenge. With the intensification of episodic extreme hydrometeorological phenomena, the threat of flooding will increasingly occur outside river valleys. Private investors must be aware ofthe potential threat, relevant legislation must be implemented, and local governments must uphold compliance. It is important to raise the vulnerability to flooding and therefore to prepare the public for such phenomena and the ability to recover from floods. It allows to connect the policies and the actors of flash flood risk management [72]. Local authorities and residents should be involved in flood risk management, as it is on private properties that a number of risk-reducing measures can be taken, such as increasing the retention of water [68; 73]. Authorities in many countries encourage changes in land use, recommending wetland restoration, afforestation, and more extensive farming, but without full public participation it will be difficult to achieve these goals [74]. Land use planning should be more widely integrated into risk reduction and flood prevention at the local scale [35; 36; 37; 75; 76]. It should be noted that due to the very high fragmentation of land ownership in the study area, carrying out coordinated measures to reduce soil erosion processes or flash floods is difficult. For example, the introduction of grass waterways or small retention reservoirs is basically not used here so far. Despite the occasional occurrence of high-intensity hydrological and geomorphological phenomena, no comprehensive programs have been implemented. On the other hand, it should be noted that the mosaic of land cover signaled earlier, as well as the processes of land abandonment, are beneficial when it comes to preventing these negative events. Flood risk management requires multi-sectoral cooperation that coordinates relevant institutions and government entities at different levels of territorial division. The lack of harmonization of policies with the activities of entities responsible for risk management--i.e., civil protection, land use planning, and sectoral programming (e.g., water management)--is not only a systemic problem in Poland. There are many cases where costly structural measures are taken that do not bring the expected benefits. Studies published to date indicate that the opportunities provided by proper land use planning are not fully utilized for flood prevention [39; 40; 75; 76]. The analysis made for small river basins in Lublin Province also indicated that this threat is not recognized in the spatial management process. Relevant provisions are not present in the planning documents of the most susceptible catchments. At the same time, flash floods have occurred in recent years in the Lublin highlands in areas designated as susceptible [49]. Due to the increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, the formation of safe spaces in rural areas is becoming a focus of attention in land use planning [77; 78; 79]. Studies conducted around the world indicate that the threat of floods, including flash floods, is a serious social problem that reduces living comfort [80; 81; 82; 83; 84]. Methodologies for studying the optimal use of land to reduce hazard risks are also being developed. However, far more attention is being paid to the role of land use planning in reducing the risk of flash floods in urban areas than in rural areas [85; 86; 87; 88].