It will not be the last Italian tragedy due to Maltempo as, unfortunately, we know by heart by now. The country that the rhetoric of palaces celebrates as the most beautiful in the world has 90 percent of its territory exposed to risks. What risks? All, meteorologists, climatologists and geologists respond in unison.
THEflood of Emilia Romagna it is an unprecedented fact: "A reality that has exceeded the worst forecasts", said the president of the Region, Stefano Bonaccinii.
But can you live like this? With the fear of being overwhelmed by extreme events, with that memory that doesn't erase deaths, disasters, evacuations? “In a certain sense we have to adapt, but above all we have to adapt our territory to these events. An extremely fragile territory” replies in the first instance the Professor Antonello Pasini, physicist and climatologist of the Cnr.
In these hours, President Bonaccini and the mayors are doing what they can to contain the damage caused by the bad weather. Will the central authorities one day listen to the population? Yeah, why concerns in Emilia Romagna, as in Ischia last November, in Sarno 25 years ago, in Trentino or in Calabria they are not only to the advantage of reporters and TV. Fifteen days ago in Calabria a bridge built with pillars on the bed of a river collapsed. The locals were somehow aware of an endangered work. And the authorities?
Two years ago Professor Pasini published a book "The disaster equation-Climate change in fragile territories", an extraordinary focus on what happens to us and could still happen to us. At the base there is an explanatory equation R=PxExV, where R is the risk, P is the danger of climatic events, E is the exposure to risk, V is the lack of adequate plans to manage the danger.
Professor Pasini, how does climate change relate to the events in Emilia-Romagna?
“The climate has a hand in it, but I maintain that the above equation holds true in this case as well. However, we also need to limit greenhouse gas emissions to avoid even worse situations”.
Italy is fragile from north to south, how can we fix it?
“Certainly ours is a very fragile country and we know it. But over the years we have also built too much engineering hydraulic works in the territories”.
What does it mean?
“That works calibrated to certain quantities of water have been created. The situation has changed for some time, so it is necessary to think of solutions that are more respectful of nature".
What is this huge amount of rain due to?
“The rains, as we all see, are very intense while we usually witness a variable spring: one day it is clear, another it is rainy, then the sun returns, and so on. But the most important phenomenon is persistence. The rain persists, falls without interruption and eventually becomes rampant."
It spreads in the city and along the flooded countryside. The commitment to prevent phenomena like these it is disjointed. We need to rely much more on science and on the indications of specialists. It is clear that protection from a flood will never be "everything for everyone". Local decisions also influence the country system. The country is behind with the climate plan. There are enlightened local administrators who really think about an effective adaptation of their territories to climate change, he told us in another occasione Professor Passini. once again with thewave of bad weather in Emilia Romagna we discover that there are things to do to lower the greatest risk and avoid deaths and injuries. Here I am.
