Prevent the increasing climate disasters affecting italian rural areas through community empowerment
By assessing disaster risk from a community-based perspective and building on the traditional relationship of care between the inhabitants of the Misa river area (Italy) and their environment, now challenged by depopulation, this project aims to prevent the more and more frequent disasters affecting the area by empowering communities, promoting local skills and building networks that enable them to undertake locally appropriate activities that increase resilience and reduce vulnerability.
Local
Italy
Marche region, municipalities affected by the floods in september 2022: Arcevia, Barbara, Cantiano, Frontone, Cagli, Pergola, Sassoferrato, Castellone di Suasa, Ostra, Serra Sant'Abbondio, Senigallia e Trecastelli; most of them located along the Misa river.
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
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Due to climate change, the exposure to hydrogeological risk is becoming more frequent in Europe.The combination of hazardous events with conditions of exposure and vulnerability of a territory easily turns into a disaster.It’s the case of what happened in September 2022 to the municipalities along the Misa river (Italy), which suffered from heavy flash floods (420 mm of rain in 6 hours, the equivalent of half a year’s rain), causing terrible damages and 13 victims. It wasn’t the first time for this area, which in the last decades has suffered damages both by earthquakes and floods. Recognising that the root of a disaster can be found not only in the extreme environmental phenomenon but also in the organisation of the communities can help address such situations from a different perspective.
Assessing disaster risk from a community-based perspective can empower local communities and prevent them from dangers.This project aims to promote local skills, recognise and value local knowledge and build networks that enable to undertake locally appropriate activities that increase resilience and reduce vulnerability.
In a context affected by depopulation and abandonment, this project wants to build on traditions and reimagine the relationship between the people and the environment, working on the cohesion of the community.By feeling more cohesive, empowered and linked to the natural surroundings, the community is able to self organise and respond to these traumatic events.
The project’s goals are:prevent disaster risk through community involvement; valorise the traditional civic use of the mountain and rural territory; capitalise the value of local knowledge; raise awareness about Climate Change;create an intergenerational mutual aid system that takes care of vulnerable people; train youth giving them a professional profile to manage risk.
The project develops 2 main actions:risk and climate change awareness raising actions and proximity and community empowerment actions
community-driven disaster risk reduction
local participation to face climate change effects
mutual aid and support networks
resilience to natural hazards
self organisation and local empowerment
The key objectives of this project in terms of sustainability are:
1.Raising awareness of Climate Change and its effects
Educational activities for all publics about Climate Change, about actions to mitigate and adapt to Climate Change and to be prepared for its effects and risks.
2.Defining a community strategy to face an eventual landslide disaster related to extreme rainfalls
Developing a Community Emergency Plan through local workshops to (A) determine safe zones, (B) define the most vulnerable people in the territory and (C) the potential local volunteers that could help the most vulnerable people in case of natural disaster, (D) to set up a list of proximity emergency contacts of each area and local emergency services.
3.Defining vulnerable areas at high risk of hydrogeologic disaster, safe areas and areas that could be safer thanks to local community actions
Developing geologic mapping analysis of the soil to classify the areas in terms of risk and potential improvement or management.
4.Improving the soil resistance to extreme rainfalls through nature based solutions
Soil reinforcement by planting local river and forest vegetation species that strengthens the soil and prevents landslides. Channel the river bed with biodegradable or re-used materials from the destroyed buildings.
5.Periodic activities in river beds to prevent landslides
Cleaning up the river bed to avoid the accumulation of materials in the river flow that may cause floods and landslides during extreme rainfall events.
6.Promote a sustainable reconstruction of buildings and public spaces:
By using local, natural and biodegradable materials, improving the energetic efficiency of buildings, using natural-based solutions, smart lighting and production of renewable energy.
7.Make the ground permeable to avoid floods
Permeabilize the cemented ground by using biodegradable materials or natural materials to increase the resistance to extreme rainfalls and avoid floods.
Unfortunately,the inhabitants of the municipalities along the Misa river have been struck by the catastrophe just a few months ago.In some cases,losing even loved ones.As in any other traumatic event,it is obviously hard to face a “reconstruction” phase.
Despite the difficulties at the beginning,we believe that doing a participatory process in which they are actively involved in prevention and monitoring of future similar events would help them collaborating to overcome the situation and fight autonomously for their territory.
Nowadays,participation in rural contexts (and not only)is complicated.Scepticism and loss of hope and identity are feelings that must be faced in many participatory processes related to public policies.Feeling hopeless to “turn back to the village that it used to be”is a frequent feeling in small-sized communities that are suffering from depopulation.
This is why the presence of some social assistants is unavoidable to support and comfort the population and convince them to participate.Letting them know that they will have the project’s main role.Mutual-aid actions are also crucial to make them feel that nobody will be left behind and everyone has an important role to go forward.
Once the project starts,we expect to raise community empowerment throughout the process.We hope that this empowerment will make them feel positive and truthful again,restoring the community's confidence after the traumatic event.
Moreover,a major link with their surrounding nature will also be created during the process.The identity of the municipalities along the river is deeply and historically linked to their fabulous nature.For this reason,we are convinced that the community actions for the care of the territory will have a mid term positive impact on the community itself.Regarding the long term results, we strongly believe that this community-centred process will have an important benefit for the population culture, collaboration dynamics and sustainability
The essential aspects to make the project’s process inclusive are: 1.ensure that all targets are able to participate in every activity and action planned;and 2.check that everyone’s situation is taken into consideration in case of an eventual future hydrogeological disaster.
To respond to the first aspect, accessible tools will be activated during the diverse steps of the participatory process:
-Services to facilitate participation in assemblies and focus groups (for instance,babysitting)
-Accessibility to information, to guarantee deaf or blind persons and migrants’ involvement: translated in different languages, simple to understand,ecc
-Spaces that are completely accessible (also wayfinding)
-Digital tools that respect accessibility standards.Alternative tools should also be offered for the ones who may not be comfortable with electronic devices.
-Walks or field inspections to map the territory should be as accessible as possible (considering that some of the natural pathways could be unmaintained and/or unwalkable).Consequently, hand-bikes or tandem bikes adapted for persons with different disabilities should be available.If not, other solutions must be found to permit everyone’s participation.
Regarding the second aspect, during the participatory labs, the needs of the different fragile groups living in the area should emerge and should be explicitly taken into consideration in the Plan. Infact, an important goal of the project is to strengthen community relations and to foster mutual care among the community members, activating mutual-help actions to not only prevent but also react in case of an hydrogeological disaster.
Training is fundamental to empower the community, to transmit good management practices of the emergency caused by the hydrogeological disaster to all-ages citizens (it is crucial to involve schools), and to perform professionalising training in the field of risk prevention and management for unemployed young people and/or migrants.
The project is born from the social feeling that some damages created by the flash flood of September 2022 could have been avoided by the communitary knowledge and monitoring and from the need to respond to events that unfortunately will be each time more frequent.
Consequently to the need expressed by the inhabitants, the project is community-centred in all its steps:
- First of all, the community is asked to map which are the riskiest pieces of territory and to analyse if in the past some old crafts and knowledge were used to maintain the territory.
- Afterwards, some maintenance activities could be self-organised by the inhabitants to start taking care of the territory together: this phase is focused on learning from former collective land management and understanding whether it could be used again or not. It will be the community that will define, based on the criteria of good land management, which good practices should be enhanced or those that should strengthen the land’s resilience against climate change effects.
- A further strand of the project involves the implementation of a training course, to be carried out in partnership with the Civil Protection Department. Population’ and young generations’ empowerment and prevention from disaster risk awareness are the aims of these training courses.
- The involved community (assumed as the totality of the affected citizens) will also be central in the definition of a Community emergency Plan, helped by the facilitation experts’ moderation. The Plan will be one of the participatory processes' outputs. Mutual-aid actions to manage the emergency should be planned, taking into consideration the most vulnerable people’s needs (for instance, persons with disabilities and elderly people could have a young contact person who could be contacted in case of need).
- The inhabitants will play a central role also in the monitoring actions.
The successful development of the project depends significantly on its capacity of being a multistakeholder and multilevel process. The vastness and complexity of disciplines involved makes it indispensable to collaborate with the competent Institutions and experts.
Local stakeholders (such as schools or local associations) are instead crucial to reach more population groups and to guarantee the success of the inhabitants’ engagement.
Each stakeholder has a role in the process:
-“Marche” Region Government will be firstly contacted to coordinate the first meetings with the local administrations in the hydrographic basin of river Misa.
-Local administrations of the hydrographic basin of Misa: to cooperate during the community activities and the population empowerment.
-ISPRA: The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (under the Italian Ministry for the Environment and the Protection of Land and Sea): involved in some training and in monitoring the process to evaluate also its replicability and impacts.
-Civil Protection Department: to co-project with the citizens the Community Emergency Plan in accordance with the existing rules and knowledge in floods / landslide prevention, protection and reaction.
-Local schools: to promote activities with children about Climate Change, its effects and what to do in case of a hydrogeologic disaster.
-Local youth associations: to promote activities with young people.
-AsVis and The Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection of the CNR (National Research Council): to monitorate, communicate and analyse the process and to be involved as experts for training and during the labs.
-Italian National Firefighters to conduct and explain conferences of how to react in case of flood/landslide emergency.
In case of being replicated in other territories, the European Commission Environment Directorate-General and the JRC could be involved to analyse the scalability in other territories of the union
During the design phase of the project,the knowledge fields implied were:
-Social analysis of the territory after the catastrophic event:listening to inhabitants’ feelings about damages that could have been avoided and identifying vulnerabilities
-Geography and Climate Change: analysing the increasing climate extreme events and the territory characteristics and identifying potential impacts of community-driven solutions to CC mitigation and adaptation
-Community-driven actions for disaster risk reduction:performing some research of successful worldwide references of European flash flood and landslides management.Identifying site-specific solutions
-Service Design:designing a multilevel and multistakeholder process.Designing the project’s phases,individualising the main Institutions and stakeholders that should be involved and how to engage the inhabitants.It is particularly crucial to create a process that enables all to participate and that guarantees that the outcomes will take into account the needs of the most vulnerable ones
-Policy-making and participatory project management: organising the project timeline,milestones,actions,people and competences needed.
The disciplines quoted afterwards would be necessary to implement the project:
-Coordination performed by the project manager together with the method expert,who would get in deep in the method of each participatory laboratory or stakeholder involvement
-Climate and community-driven disaster risk reduction experts would produce thematic materials and contents useful for the process and they would identify experts that can do training to the inhabitants
-All the participatory laboratories and activities would be managed by facilitators with different experts’ aid
-On top of this,other experts and stakeholders would be needed for the risk prevention training and social assistants or psychologists would be necessary mostly at the beginning to deal with the population’s trauma due to the catastrophe
The United Nations define disaster as “a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts”. This definition shows the weight of the social component in disasters, which means that if we work on vulnerability and capacity to act we can make a hazard not to turn into a disaster.
The innovative character of our concept is recognising the important role of communities in disaster risk reduction, adopting an approach that has a long history in developing countries but little or no application in Italy.
Through this project we aim to empower local authorities and communities, to increase public education and awareness of disaster risk, to promote empowerment and inclusive, accessible and non-discriminatory participation, and to include traditional knowledge to complement official and scientific data.
We also aim to work on the vulnerability of this area, which is determined by physical, but also social and economical factors: the depopulation and abandonment phenomena have transformed the traditional relationship of care among the inhabitants and their environment replacing the “comunanza”, a traditional way of administrating the commons that used to take care of the land, the mountains and the rivers, with abandonment. Building on traditions and using a community-based approach doesn’t mean putting aside the role of institutions, but working with them to support local communities and scale up local actions.
With the communities of the Misa river area, we aim to co-design a local plan for climate change adaptation, whose contents need to combine local knowledge with scientific one and official data, and therefore need the participation of institutions, who can use this pilot to advocate a plan at a national level.
Due to climate change,the exposure to hydrogeological risk is becoming more frequent every year.According to the Joint Research centre, in Europe floods are the most common and most costly natural disasters in Europe.In Italy, in relation to the last “Città-Clima” report of Legambiente,a 19% increase of heavy floods has taken place in the last year.For this reason,this project could be replicable in many European and Italian territories and it could also learn from other similar experiences.
To be able to replicate the “pilot” project the new territory should present some characteristics:
-The presence of commons in the surrounding environment, which may enable the application of policies for commons management by local community and / or the existence of a community that wants to take care of the territory actively.
-To be a territory characterised by a high hydrogeological risk or other risks caused by climate change
-To be a vast rural territory (also mountainous) with a low density profile.
-The presence of schools and aggregation places for younger generations to activate training programs
-The presence of a group of professionists to moderate the accompanying process towards the creation of a monitoring community and the triggering of a mapping and monitoring system of the territory
-The availability of stakeholders and Institutions with expertise in risk prevention and emergency management
Nevertheless,for the perfect replicability of the project,the most suitable territory would be the one in which there are also young people (migrants or not) that could do a professionalising training path to become responsible for the activities of prevention, monitoring and action in case of floods.
If the project was expected to be replicated for another type of community-driven risk management,the methodology of participation and multilevel and multistakeholder approach should be similar,but the experts and the contents about prevention would necessarily change
The project faces two important global challenges of our time.
First of all, it targets the mitigation and adaptation to Climate Change. Every day, we are observing the worsening effects of Climate Change:extreme climate phenomena such as extreme temperatures, flash rainfalls and endless droughts. Fighting together to neutralise the damaging gases emissions (CO2 but not only) and to mitigate and adapt to the effects of Climate Change is imperative and cannot be postponed anymore.
The project focuses on territories that have a high hydrogeological risk that has been dramatically worsened due to Climate Change. In Italy, more than 6.8 million people (11.5%) live in flood risk areas and 1.5 million buildings are at risk of flooding (10.7%).
The project’s aim is first of all, to make inhabitants aware of climate change, its effects and possible actions to mitigate and adapt to them. At the same time, it aims to empower them to start acting to reduce its effects and to take care of their territory as their past generations used to do.
The second global challenge faced is the socio-demographic trend characterised, as in many rural and inner areas of Europe, by depopulation, urban emigration, low fertility and population ageing. According to the latest census, Inner Areas make up 53% of Italian municipalities, are home to 23% of the Italian population (13 540 000 inhabitants) and cover 60% of the national territory. The project aims to slow down depopulation by empowering the community, by increasing the relation between nature and inhabitants and by training youths and migrants to become responsible for risk management.
A challenge linked to this second one is the loss of identity and confidence caused by the “abandonment” of the territory. By self-organising communitary activities, we hope that this social feeling will be reduced as well.
