Coping with Floods in Italy: Learning from the Past to Plan Future Adaptation

Abstract

After more than 150 years from the birth of the Country, Italians should have learnt that coping with floods is a never-ending challenge. The strategies to deal with it require the fundamental awareness that the key factors are not just money, loans and financial flows, but consciousness, knowledge, expertise, sharing, equity. The multiple routes include adapting to climate change, smart forecasting, assessing river basin management, improving the design standards of engineering works, taking care of hillslope and river maintenance, revising dam operation strategies, reducing exposure as well as vulnerability to flood risk, discontinuing land consumption, improving urban resilience.