Le floods these days in Italy have touched high-risk areas, for which it is planned to intervene with Pnrr funds. 5,4% of the Italian territory is in floodable areas with various levels of danger, as certified by the Ispra Report recently presented in Rome, which exposes a structurally weak country. Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Calabria are the Regions with the most compromised percentage of territory, with a level of danger of roads, valleys and districts higher than the national average. To get an idea of the economic damage caused by floods throughout Europe in the last twenty years, we need to refer to the Titan Project, which calculated them at 77 billion euros.
Returning to Italy, the Ispra researchers point the finger in particular at Calabria (with 17,1% of areas at risk) ed Emilia Romagna (with 11,6%). Furthermore, broadening the view to all areas where the flood risk is high, the report shows that 4,1% of the population and 7,8% of cultural assets are in constant danger. The climatic variations, year after year, accentuate the worries, but so far the bureaucracy has prevented the necessary infrastructures from being built. There is also no soil conservation law.
Il hydrogeological risk it closely affects many Municipalities: more than 7% have at least 20% of the surface at risk of flooding. In practice, the dramas of these days in Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria were predictable, and it doesn't matter if the projects and recovery plans were ready or not: the point is that they have never been implemented.
Meanwhile, on Official Gazette on 15 November a new Decree was published which updates the criteria for anti-flood works. It's an opportunity to review projects and get to work, also because the government's Pnrr - under the heading "Protection of the territory and water resources" - allocates 2,49 billion euros to be spent in less than five years to secure 1,5 million people.
I serious cases to handle unfortunately there are many. In Calabria, the province of Crotone is the one with the highest percentages of exposed territory and population. But also the North it has its black holes. In Ferrara, 100% of the resident population is exposed to floods, landslides and mudslides, while the province of Venice is the one with the highest number of cultural assets at risk. Finally, in Liguria, the most serious alarms concern the province of Savona.
“Risk management and mitigation – reads the Ispra report – are undoubtedly the most important components, considering the extension of the territories subject to danger from flooding and the impacts that flood events are capable of causing to assets and people marking, even dramatically, our country”.
