Insurance plays an important role within the financial system as it is an area of responsibility and concern for the stability and efficiency of financial markets. The area of insurance is extremely important because its activity establishes the confidence of the insured in the insurance system, and indirectly provides confidence in the financial system. Social benefits of insurance are reflected in the improvement of protection and efficient compensation of damages and continuous payment of insured amounts. Organized insurance companies manage other people's savings and it is an important activity (Vaughan and Vaughan 2000, Bijelic 2002), which is not only reflected in the protection function but also confirms social and economic responsibility. At the annual level, there are various natural disasters worldwide that cause various types of losses, which are estimated at about 220 billion dollars, or three times more than in the first decade of the twenty-first century. In recent years, natural disasters have been intensified and the most devastating ones occur in regions poorly covered by insurance, so that certain countries have introduced mandatory insurance against natural disasters, while Serbia is still considering it. In addition, frequent natural disasters of great scope and intensity have become more frequent in Serbia in recent years. Confirmation of this condition is the estimation that local insurance companies paid up to five times more money for damages than in previous years. About half a million hectares of arable land were flooded, while only about 10% of owners insure their property. In recent years, rainfall was much greater than usual, so streams which do not appear in geographic maps transformed into torrential floods, which resulted in flood events even in regions with an altitude of a thousand meters above sea level(1). Property insurance from flooding is not part of the basic insurance packages of companies, which cover damage caused by lightnings, storms, hail and even a plane crash.
Soil erosion by water is one of the most widespread forms of soil degradation in the Europe. According to latest assessment performed with RUSLE2015 soil erosion model approximately 12.7% of arable lands in European Union is estimated to suffer from moderate to high erosion (>5 t ha(-1) yr(-1)). This equates to an area of 140,373 km (2) which equals to more than entire surface area of Greece (Panagos et al. 2015). In all land uses, the average rate of soil eroded across Europe (2.46 tonnes per ha annually) continues to outstrip soil formation rates (<1.4 tonnes per ha annually). The amount of soil lost to water erosion in Europe is almost 970 billion tonnes; equal to an area the size of Berlin - 1 metre deep. However, not all the news is bad; recent policy interventions through the common agricultural policy (CAP) have reduced the rate of soil loss in the EU by an average of 9.5% overall, and by 20% for arable lands (Panagos et al. 2015f). Latest developments in RUSLE2015 allow to incorporate the climate change scenarios and the forthcoming intensification of rainfall in North and Central Europe plus the land use changes driven by policies such as Common Agricultural Policy. Recently, a module of CENTURY model was coupled with the RUSLE2015 for estimating the effect of erosion in current carbon balance in European agricultural lands (Lugato et al. 2016)
The aim of this paper is to make a comparative analysis of the legislative framework for soil and water resource management in Serbia and some Balkan region countries with an established EU legislative framework and give recommendations to improve policy management in this area. The EU has developed a better legal framework for water resources in relation to the soil resources. The Water Framework Directive which was adopted in 2000 is the umbrella legislative framework for the later adoption of many important documents in the field of the water policy related to: the river basin management, flood protection, water quality protection and others. In 2006 the EU adopted the Soil Thematic Strategy, a very important document in the context of the management of soil resources that had emerged as a need to protect the basic functions of soil threatened by severe degradation processes. The Strategy included a proposal for the Soil Framework Directive, but unfortunately, this Directive has not been adopted yet. After adaptation of the EU Water Framework Directive, Serbia adopted the Water Law, which is partly harmonized with the EU Directive and has several significant drawbacks. The soil protection provisions in Serbia could be found in several laws: the Law of Agricultural Land, the Law on Environmental Protection and other legal and strategic documents. The most important law concerning soil protection in Serbia was the Law on Soil Protection adopted in December 2015. In addition to the analysis of the soil and water legal framework in Serbia, this paper analyzes the laws that have been enacted in the area of these two resources so far and their compliance with the EU directives, as well as those laws enacted in some countries in the region. From the neighboring countries, the analysis was carried out for Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The selection of these countries was carried out for several reasons: firstly these countries are the former Republics of Yugoslavia, which had the same legal framework that has evolved in different ways, being more or less compliant with the legal framework of the EU.
The modeling of sediment discharge in ungagged basins has been always a challenge. The aim of this paper is to compare two modeling approaches with measured data. The data for the deposited sediment was provided by bathymetric measurements of the Kalimanci reservoir. It was calculated that mean annual sediment deposition is 214,325 m(3)/year. The first modeling approach was established using the Gavrilovic method. The catchment of the reservoir was subdivided into smaller sub-catchments and using GIS and remote sensing, the sediment discharge and sediment production were calculated. It was calculated that annually 202,551 m(3)/year sediment was deposited in the reservoir. The main part of the sediment was distributed by the river Bregalnica, 127,490 m(3)/year or 63%. The second approach was established by employing hydraulic modeling (HEC-RAS). The main scope of this approach was to establish the deposition of the sediment in the river Bregalnica and how much of this sediment reaches the reservoir. As sediment input in the HEC model was used the data for sediment discharge of all the river and torrent tributaries of the river Bregalnica, calculated also with the Erosion Potential Method by Gavrilovic. The sediment discharge using the second approach was calculated to be 152,231 m(3)/year. It was established that 75% of the input sediment in the river Bregalnica is deposited in the hydro-morphologic extension of the river, mainly in the valleys, where the slope of the river bed flattens. We conclude that calculated and measured values are similar and beside this all three approaches generate different insights into natural process.
Water, wind, or tillage-induced soil erosion can significantly degrade soil quality and decrease crop yield from farm fields. Traditionally, research in soil erosion is mostly focused on water or wind erosion. Recent studies over the past two decades, however, point to the importance of tillage operations as a source of soil translocation on undulating agricultural land. Tillage disturbs the soil not only vertically but also horizontally by throwing soil in the direction of tillage. These operations influence physical, chemical, and biological soil properties, which also affect soil quality and consequently plant growth. Moreover, the translocation of soil particles in topsoil by tillage practice has been recognized as an important factor of redistribution of soil over time and in the development of morphological changes within agricultural fields. Therefore, understanding the issue of topsoil displacement by tillage translocation is an important step towards developing tillage practices that do not degrade soil resources. This study was designed to assess the soil translocation effect in topsoil before and after 5 tillage sequences by using three different practices, namely mouldboard plough (I.), chisel plough (II.), and disc harrow (III.) in the Chernozems region in Sardice village (South Moravia, Czech Republic). The influence of different tillage practices on the changes in depth of topsoil was assessed through description of 40 shallow pits -10 pits were dug out before the tillage operations and then 30 more after five tillage operations. The results of the soil survey are based on the evaluation of the stratigraphy of the soil profile where the potential loss of topsoil was determined by a change in transition between the dark Ac horizon and yellow loess Ck horizon and by the type of transition. Shift of topsoil after five performed operations is in the range of 9-15 cm at the top position of convex-concave slope and 4-10 cm at the top of convex-linear slope. Significant shifts across each tillage practice (from III. to I.) are also apparent from the results of the experiment, which can be caused not only by the used technology but as well as by the shape of the slope.
