Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risk: Challenges and Opportunities for Italian Civil Protection

Abstract

This work provides an overview of the hydraulic and hydrogeological warning system, starting with a description of the tasks carried out by the Italian Civil Protection Department and in an Italian context. The Italian early warning system was put in place with the intent of following a specific approach, also confirmed by the Sendai Framework, that has shifted its focus towards Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as opposed to Disaster Management. The aim of the paper is to stress the challenge and the relevance of the approach to reducing landslide risk, which requires the involvement of many actors, including scientists and decision makers, as well as international, national, local, governmental, and non-governmental institutions, to find, develop and share new and best practices in the technical-scientific and regulation fields in order to make the necessary tools and instruments available to carry out the challenging tasks defined in the Sendai Framework toward real Disaster Risk Reduction.