Floods Devastate Italy’s Emilia-Romagna Region and Predict More Storms to Come

Experts predict that similar, frequent and violent storms like the ones that killed 15 people, rendered thousands homeless and disrupted transportation and businesses in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna this month will become more common after it has happened twice. “The question to ask,” said the country’s civil protection minister, Nello Musumeci, “is not whether a disastrous event” like the deadly flooding will happen again, “but when and where it will occur.”

While the causes of floods are complex, many experts in Italy have linked the two recent devastating storms that occurred over two weeks to climate change.

The storms produced a large amount of water – about 19.6 inches of rain in only 15 days, which is more than half the region’s average annual rainfall. It was an extraordinary amount due to a monthslong drought that left the terrain struggling to absorb all of that rain. The floods inundated almost two dozen rivers and caused billions of gallons of water to pour into streets and farmland.

Several factors made the latest floods worse, such as centuries-old management problems with land and rivers. Because of urbanisation and reduced space for water to flow in Emilia-Romagna over the years, the flooding on the lower-lying plains became worse. Rivers were channeled, diverted, and constricted since human made events have either weakened or not maintained many canals, waterways and dams built in past decades — centuries even — that were intended to control water coming down from the Apennine Mountains. Many riverbeds and embankments needed maintenance, vegetation and animal dens had weakened levees, and artificial barriers and dams that had been built centuries ago across many mountainous Italian areas, which make up 70 percent of the country’s territory, to control water levels have been largely abandoned.

In response to the floods, the Italian government has set aside €2 billion ($2.15 billion) for the flood-stricken area, but experts say preventive measures to mitigate the effects of future storms must go together with rebuilding. Italy has not backed European Commission directive, the National Adaptation Plan, which obliges all European Union member countries to adopt policies to reduce their vulnerability to climate change. However, the civil protection minister assured that the plan would be out between the end of this year and the beginning of next year, “updated with data processed between 2016 and 2020”.

Experts have suggested stopping land consumption and redeveloping or reclaiming abandoned, polluted or degraded areas as part of the solution to flooding. Sustainable agriculture, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving existing water infrastructures such as dams and reservoirs could also help avoid natural disasters from happening.

Ms. Lastoria, a hydraulic engineer, said, “There is no quick simple solution, no magic wand – that’s why you need to plan. Otherwise, we risk reaching a point of no return.”