**1. Introduction**

Water has many facets. In general, water is often characterized as one of the basic components required for life. A second viewpoint is that water is a natural element which threatens human society via floods. Human activities have significantly interfered with the environment and in doing so have altered the behavior of surface as well as underground water in the landscape. Water is thus becoming an increasingly precious liquid and simultaneously a feared element. In order to protect the values it has built up, society strives to adopt measures with the aim of preventing or minimizing risks. Water managemen<sup>t</sup> in the area of drinking water and protection against its negative aspects are some of the important activities carried out by a dynamically developing society on the level of communities and countries, and also on an international level.

The information obtained provides an assessment of water-related crises for which a type plan has been prepared based on a risk analysis within crisis management. The water managemen<sup>t</sup> area is thus reflected on from a non-traditional perspective and a contemporary model—the paradigm of considering societal resilience for water-related crises. The assessment was carried out within the scope of a case study focusing on the Czech Republic. In this aspect, the presented study is unique, innovative and original by incorporating and combining a reflection on crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> and on water-related crises.

**Citation:** Kavan, Š.; Kroˇcová, Š.; Pokorný, J. Assessment of the Readiness and Resilience of Czech Society against Water-Related Crises. *Hydrology* **2021**, *8*, 14. https:// doi.org/10.3390/hydrology8010014

Academic Editors: Tamim Younos, Tammy Parece, Juneseok Lee, Jason Giovannettone and Alaina J. Armel Received: 9 December 2020 Accepted: 21 January 2021 Published:22January2021

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International literature in the area usually offers reflections of specific separate components, which can be classified into texts focusing on securing drinking water, handling floods and crisis management. The topic of the emergency supply of drinking water is handled, for instance, from the viewpoint of a strategy for the supply of drinking water, the area of water managemen<sup>t</sup> systems and the associated operating risks [1], the possible use of underground water for emergency supply and an assessment of the sources of backup drinking water sources [2,3], Preventing Secondary Disasters through Providing Emergency Water Supply [4]; ye<sup>t</sup> another approach is the analysis of risks and sensitivity of potential sources of the emergency water supply [5], emergency supply of drinking water with the use of available technology [6]. One important document with an international impact in this area is "Water Safety Plans", authored by the World Health Organisation; the document focuses on Managing drinking-water quality from catchment to consumer [7].

The second area that has been the focus for researchers is that of floods. There is an ample number of documents and papers; however, these are very diverse in nature, covering topics such as various means of protecting against floods [8–10], the framework for flood risk communication [11,12], strategies for reducing risks during floods [13–16], and the implementation of the flood risk managemen<sup>t</sup> directive in selected European countries [17,18]. Some documents also focus on selected aspects of floods such as the use of mobile Mose barriers to protect Venice [19] or the household insurance system for households located in areas at risk from floods [20].

One specific area which is also covered by the presented study and is often reflected on separately in the literature is the area of crisis management. The managemen<sup>t</sup> of people and crises represents an important component of the study. Crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> must be based on a risk analysis and react to potential threats [21]. International studies usually focus on a single topic, such as the government's position on crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> [22], team-based handling of catastrophes [23], coordination and collaboration when handling floods [24] and the sustainability of critical infrastructure [25]. A link between crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> and water-related catastrophes in the scope covered by this article cannot be found in international databases. This specific angle thus provides a new perspective on the given area and contributes to the development of crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> theory. It will certainly be interesting to carry out a similar study in other countries and to compare the results obtained for this specific area of safety within the scope of further systemic research.

In the Czech Republic, as a country situated in Central Europe with a predominantly continental climate and without access to a sea, the experience with the solution of waterrelated crises is primarily connected with the extensive floods in 1997 and 2002. These floods first hit the eastern part of the country (1997) and subsequently the center and west of the country (2002). From the perspective of the supply of drinking water, no wide-reaching problems with a lack of water have occurred. In recent years, however, with regard to lower rainfall and a decrease in the level of groundwater, there were local problems with the supply of drinking water and also partially with a restriction on the use of surface water for irrigation. The given facts were reflected in the area of crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> when preparing risk analyses and were also exhibited during the processing of type plans as part of the crisis plans.

Society strongly emphasizes the prevention of extraordinary events [26–28]. Understanding the risks and threats has a direct impact on the stance of the public administration and consequently also the general populace to planned or adopted measures and the associated economic costs. The selection of topics for this study was based on the risks that were identified and evaluated in the "Risk Analysis for the Czech Republic" and approved by the Czech government's ruling of 27 April 2016 after discussion in the Country's Security Council [29].

A total of 72 types of hazards were identified in the Risk Analysis for the Czech Republic, divided into three basic categories [29]. These are:


The risk analysis identified 22 types of hazards/risks that were evaluated as unacceptable and where, if they occur, these are expected to lead to a state of crisis and need to be prioritized. Risks that are unacceptable for society include (in the category of antropogeneous and natural risks, the subcategory of abiotic and technogeneous risks): floods, flash floods, catastrophic rainfall, disruption of dams of prominent waterworks (special floods), and large-scale disruptions of the delivery of drinking water. When preparing the study, the authors decided to adopt a certain level of generality and focus the article on events whose theme is associated with water, with the aim of increasing the awareness of and subsequently improving the quality of prevention within these risk categories (see also Czech governmen<sup>t</sup> directive 369/2016).

In connection with the risk analysis for the purpose of system access, it is important to formulate the perception of safety and to specify deviations from safety and disruptions of safety, i.e., defining various types of events. Safety and security are not stand-alone constructs without relations to other notions—they are always considered with respect to a referential object [30]. The referential object may be a country, company, community, person, building, secret information, etc. It is then possible to speak about the safety and security of a country, information security, etc. The safety and security environment consists of a range of elements of the referential object, which are then linked to other elements [31]. This work focuses on country-level safety and security in relation to critical situations related to water.

In terms of safety, the actual safety environment consists of real and usually wellknown referential objects, such as a country, its organizational elements, or international organizations. Safety then represents a state of calmness, where the referential object is not experiencing interference and is not under threat, and hence it is not necessary to make proactive steps to ensure the required state. A joint foundation for all areas dealing with safety is the adoption of a set of measures aimed at ensuring safety. These measures are aimed at reaching a state where damage is minimized and the referential object can continue performing its intended function [32]. The measures aimed at handling crises that have been prepared for the Czech Republic are handled within the crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> and planning system.

Planning is one of the basic functions of management. Crisis planning in the Czech Republic is a crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> tool that represents a summary of planning activities, procedures and links implemented by crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> bodies and their designated governmen<sup>t</sup> or public institutions, legal bodies or entrepreneurs in order to implement the goals and tasks associated with ensuring the safety of the country and its populace during emergencies [33].

Humans live in a society that consists of various people who all have their own interests, capabilities and preferences. That is why it is necessary to regulate our mutual cohabitation, for instance via legal regulations, and during crises this system also incorporates measures that arise from the crisis plan. In the case of water crisis management, the crisis plan focuses on risks which were assessed as unacceptable risks. These groups include catastrophes caused by floods, flash floods, excessive rainfall, breaches of dams of significant waterworks (special floods) and significant disruptions of drinking water supply.

The aim of the article is to assess and characterize crisis situations related to water, for a type plan that has been prepared within crisis planning based on a risk analysis. The assessment of this topic is carried out primarily from the viewpoint of prepared measures targeting society and individuals. The assessment is implemented as a case study under the conditions of the Czech Republic. From a scientific viewpoint, this represents a research limitation and means that we focus on the conditions and approach to the given topic implemented by the specific considered country. In view of the aims of the study, an assessment of the technical quality of specific equipment of emergency services and of preventive technical-structural measures is not part of the study's scope. A certain limitation on the study comes from the composition of the expert group for performing the multicriteria analysis. Their own experience from the resolution of crisis situations (especially water-related) could influence the objectivity and a certain degree of detachment. For this reason, the expert group was comprised of experts from different areas. The essential characteristics were included as part of the performed SWOT analysis; in light of the scope of the study, it was not possible to resolve the individual type plans individually, but a summary evaluation of the plans that relate to water-related catastrophes was performed.

The theoretical part of the article delimits and characterizes selected type plans which are included in crisis plans and which are related to water. The practical part of the article focuses on a concretization of selected measures within type plans and possible impacts on life in the Czech Republic. The article assesses crisis preparedness within the scope of a case study focusing on the national level.

The research question was formulated as the process of creating organized knowledge based on systematic research. Specifically, the following research questions were formulated: how has the preparedness for crisis situations associated with water been incorporated in the planning documentation on the national level within the Czech Republic? How are individual type plans handling water-related catastrophes designed? An analysis of the topic was carried out in order to reflect these scientific problems.
