Abstract
Abstract. Over the past century the municipal area of Genoa has been affected by recurring flood events and several landslides that have caused severe damage to urbanized areas on both the coastal-fluvial plains and surrounding slopes, sometimes involving human casualties. The analysis of past events' annual distribution indicates that these phenomena have occurred with rising frequency in the last seventy years, following the main land use change due to the development of harbour, industrial, and residential areas, which has strongly impacted geomorphological processes. Consequently, in Genoa, civil protection activities are taking on an increasing importance for geo-hydrological risk mitigation. The current legislative framework assigns a key role in disaster prevention to municipalities, emergency plan development, as well as response action coordination in disaster situations. In view of the geomorphological and environmental complexity of the study area and referring to environmental laws, geo-hydrological risk mitigation strategies adopted by local administrators for civil protection purposes are presented as examples of current land/urban management related to geo-hydrological hazards. Adopted measures have proven to be effective on several levels (planning, management, structure, understanding, and publication) in different cases. Nevertheless, the last flooding event (4 November 2011) has shown that communication and public information concerning the perception of geo-hydrological hazard can be improved.
Highlights
The enormous potential for disaster resulting from natural hazards has been well known in Europe since the final decade of the 20th century
After a brief overview on the current Italian national and regional legislative framework for civil protection, this study explores the complex environmental setting, the most important land-use changes and historical flooding events affecting the urban area of Genoa, as well as as an example of current land/urban management related to geo-hydrological hazards, outlining geo-hydrological risk mitigation strategies adopted at a municipal scale
With regard to geo-hydrological risks, the abovementioned civil protection laws interface with other laws related to soil defence, such as National Law 183/1989 and Regional Law 9/1993
Summary
The enormous potential for disaster resulting from natural hazards has been well known in Europe since the final decade of the 20th century. After a brief overview on the current Italian national and regional legislative framework for civil protection, this study explores the complex environmental setting, the most important land-use changes and historical flooding events affecting the urban area of Genoa, as well as as an example of current land/urban management related to geo-hydrological hazards, outlining geo-hydrological risk mitigation strategies adopted at a municipal scale. With regard to geo-hydrological risks, the abovementioned civil protection laws interface with other laws related to soil defence, such as National Law 183/1989 and Regional Law 9/1993 These laws led to the introduction of the Basin Master Plan, a planning and management tool defining risk zones at a basin scale for both landslide and flood risks, and providing regulations for land use.
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