ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The degradation of natural resources has been understood as consequence of several factors as economical and population growth. Therefore has been matter of attention since the last century creating new study branches as environmental economics, ecological economics, environmental management, and resource economics, among others. Despite the fact that the environment can be protected and managed by the correct and convenient construction of models and theories, scientists may not forget that external and more powerful forces can lead to environmental depletion such as natural disasters. The history of floods throughout the last decades has increasingly called the attention of representantives from various disciplines which are in charge of the development not only for prevention measures and contingency actions, but also for redesigning structures able to deal with the presence of such undesidered events. The aim of the paper is to present a description of the environmental situation of Guatemala and the Czech Republic after some of the most serious natural disasters such as the Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the flood in the area of the Elbe and Danube’s basins in 2002. The contents of the paper can provide a comparison between two different structures not only because of their geografical caracteristics and conditions, but also because of their internal administrative and economic systems. The presentation of the two cases could serve as platform for further research on this branch. Environmental quality and its protection not only involves nature, resources and biodiversity. Human being’s health and sustainable development are strongly connected with it. The paper was divided in four main parts which follow a short introduction. The first two parts describe the natural disasters in each of the mentioned countries and the last ones the state of the environment due to floods. At the end there are conclusions and a list of biliografical resources. It is very interesting to note, that concerning Guatemala, there is more information available about damages caused by the Hurrican. The Czech Republic is more concentrated on developing information about forecasting methods. In some communities of Guatemala the population which can be affected from the disasters are being actively informed about the actions to take during a disaster. In the Czech Republic people do not feel enough informed about the actions they have to take before, during and after the catastrophes. However, awarness about the state of the environment is also an issue in which still a few portion of the population seems to be involved.
