Integrated Approach to Flood Risk Management (INARMA)
1. Needs for Event Management in Small Catchment Basins
The management of water resources is becoming, at a time of scarcity and climatic change, more and more complex and is often subject to social tension among the various inhabitants of the same geographical area.
When, on top of this, a terrain is affected by calamitous events (landslides, inundations, river outpourings, floods, debris flows, slope failures, etc.) the tensions involved and the harms caused by poor decisions (or worse: wrong decisions) can become a source of ungovernability constraining future choices in land organization. The management of hydrologic regimes and surface water outflows in small catchment basins, considered exclusively in terms of public works, has often led to complex, expensive and sometimes even dangerous interventions, and to practically ineffective and uselessly bureaucratic models of land administration and flood prevention.
It must also be said that terrain morphology is itself a pivotal and decisive factor influencing the evolution of calamitous events in the course of time, and often generating unforeseen situations, which are not sufficiently analysed at a general forecasting level. In this context, the Provincial Civil Defence plays a key role by taking actions when the case demands it, a role made even more difficult by the fact that the only available forecasting models are framed and calibrated on the basis of the main catchment basin, which is much wider than the smaller ones and whose monitoring is often irrelevant for correct prediction of event evolution in minor or secondary catchments. Furthermore, in every part of the EU, on top of a situation already structurally fragile, the first signs and effects of climate change are starting to appear more and more strongly, and are producing consequences on the terrain, which will become increasingly dramatic if new preventive measures are not applied.
In fact, while on one hand the water level in water bodies is becoming consolidated at an all-time low, (a sign of a variation in the hydro-geological dynamics of the upper part of the water table), on the other, extreme hydrological events (heavy rains, storms, cloudbursts, etc.) bring down large quantities of water over shorter and shorter periods, thus increasing the risk of catastrophic floods.
2. Project History: from Event Modeling and Forecasting (INUNDA) to the Framing of Non-structural Interventions
The present project is conceived as the continuation and operational development of INUNDA project, an initiative approved and financed by the European Commission under the umbrella of the Interreg III C Programme, carried out from 1st January 2004 through 31st December 2006. INUNDA focused on flood prevention in urban areas, and its basic objective was to develop and validate a working method applicable to the catchment basins selected by each partner in their respective countries (Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Belgium), which would minimise flood impact and define the risk levels correlated to every single recurrence interval for each flooded area. INUNDA project delineated a flood risk analysis method, and consequently identified the areas to be safeguarded. The initiative was carried out cohesively and consistently, and achieved international renown (the project was presented at the International Forum on Water held in
3. Normative Framework
INARMA project aims at putting into practice the various directives issued recently by the EU (the latest being Directive 2007/60/EC of 23rd October 2007 on flood risk appraisal and management), paying particular attention to extreme events (floods and droughts) caused by the current evolution of climatic change in various regional areas.
The many problems concerning water resources described in the various EU directives (from WFD 2000/60 to the recent EU Directive 2007/60 of 23rd October 2007) suggest on the whole a series of common guidelines highlighting, among others:
- coordinated management and protection of water resources
- prevention of residual flood risk
- restoration of the environmental equilibrium of watercourses
- active involvement of all concerned parties
The tools indicated by the EU Directives and regulated by the legislation of each member state concentrate on the management and defence of river basins, mainly at a super-regional or even super-national level (the latter being the case with many European rivers) or at least a regional level, since these primary-level activities pertain to the River Authorities and their dependent Bodies. There is, however, an administrative hiatus in the field of water resources, caused by the breach between the administration of catchment basins at regional or super-regional level, the application of the relevant measures, and the interventions planned at a sub-regional, provincial or district level. There exist, as well, profound gaps separating local inhabitants, single Municipalities and River Authorities (these are run at a super-regional level almost everywhere in the EU). If public works and interventions are ever carried out, the needs and expectations of the local population are hardly ever taken into consideration. To be more precise:
· the correct handling of the possible risk is never discussed with the people who make use of the watercourse;
· management tools for secondary river networks (sub-regional and provincial) are never developed or even planned, even though these concern the property and security of a large part of the population, as well as their activities and infrastructures;
· the model of intervention operated by the Provincial Civil Defence is never preventively compared with the possible event evolution and the consequent security risks that might arise as a result of environmentally incorrect analysis.
