Land use planning: a basic tool for risk mitigation and damage reduction

The increasing amount of damages to the built up environment in urban and metropolitan areas, has given a stronger impulse to analyze the relationship between risk assessment and urban and regional planning, the latter to be considered as a tool in damage reduction and mitigation policies. Disasters that occurred in developed countries in the last years showed how vulnerable urban and metropolitan areas are, because of the high concentration of people, roads, lifelines, and services. Industrial and developed countries have to face these vulnerabilities not less than developing countries, and they must recognize the limits of technical solutions. Only recently those concerns became part of Italian public officers’ policy, thanks to important laws and regulations that were passed by Italian governments during the 80s and the 90s. Urban and regional plans which incorporate land use planning as the essential part of risk reduction strategies have been developed in the past few years. Administrators and practitioners will find in these plans new concepts and new professional tools to be implemented in their ordinary activity. This has become particularly true after the flood that hit one of the most important Northern Italian regions, the Piemonte, in November 1994 for over a week and which caused a many severe damages in the provinces of Alessandria and Asti. More than five years have passed since the 1994 flood; cities have recovered, the Region and the State have slowly given funds for reconstruction. It is important to assess the reconstruction process, in order to see whether or not important lessons have been learnt from this dramatic event. According to the law number 183/1989 concerning river basins management, the Po River Watershed Authority has approved a multifaceted plan to implement both structural and non-structural measures to mitigate the existing level of risk. Ecological and social factors have to be taken into account as well as hydraulic parameters. The Po is the main Italian river, settlements have grown in its sides over the centuries and it’s therefore difficult to decide which parts should be defended no matter at what price and which should be relocated in safer areas. The most urgent problem the Watershed Authority has to face is how to make local administrations participate in order to implement the strategic policies which have been decided for the River and how to incorporate geological surveys, statistical analyses, hazard forecasts into both regional and urban plans; how to translate hazards and vulnerability assessments into correct location of functions, facilities, and into land use regulations. It’s time to involve planners in risk analyses and management, as far as it has been recognized that major risks do not require only emergency preparedness, but also decisions concerning the conservation and the development of towns and settlements. This is a quite new field of analysis and intervention for planners especially in Italy, where they have been and still are educated in architectural faculties. New tools and innovative conceptual frameworks are required to respond to the emerging demand for plans that incorporate also risk mitigation concerns. Burby in the recent book ‘Cooperating with nature’, focusing on mitigation strategies involving land use planning policies, recognizes the following as the most relevant areas for future research: ‘plan making, vulnerability assessment, and implementation’. Those three areas of concern suggested for future research will be briefly discussed in the paper referring to the Italian recent experience, and particularly to the watershed planning process after the Piemonte Flood in 1994. The results of this documents’ analysis is provided by recommendations both for future research and for decision-makers.