The Natural Resources as Indicators of Environmental Safety: Situation and Perspectives of the Republic of Serbia

Environmental risk assessment for water resources in the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The ubiquitous trend of intensive exploitation of natural resources at the national and global level has caused a number of environmental, political and social disruptions. The need for a healthy environment on the one hand and the improvement of people's living standards in the 21st century on the other are often incompatible despite the constant formal emphasis on the importance of the concept of sustainable development. In the theoretical sense, changes (disturbances) in the environment are a consequence of complex natural and social cause-and-effect actions which, viewed in a broader context, unite ecological safety. Accordingly, in order to research the mentioned changes as precisely as possible and overcome the scientific problem of lack of adequate methodology for researching environmental safety in the Republic of Serbia, the most important natural resources identified in this paper are water, soil, air and biodiversity. In accordance with the projected goal (systematic description of the state of ecological security on the territory of the Republic of Serbia with special reference to the state of natural resources), analysis of the content of documents generated within certain national, international and non-governmental organizations will be used as one of the main techniques. According to previous data, it can be concluded that the current state of environmental security in the Republic of Serbia is particularly disturbed, bearing in mind the fact that the main cause of the disturbance is excessive exploitation of natural resources initiated for short-term financial benefits.