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

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.