Danger of new landslides and floods in Italy

A study by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research in this country (ISPRA), which was published on Thursday on the official website of the National Confederation of Direct Farmers (Coldiretti), confirms that this risk affects 93.9 percent of these sites.

The President of Coldiretti, Ettore Brandini, referred in particular to the recent floods that hit the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, due to 48 hours of torrential rain, which caused two deaths.

“As the torrential rains increase, it is necessary to have storage tanks that hold the water upstream, creating conditions to avoid critical situations due to flooding, as unfortunately happened in Emilia-Romagna,” Brandini said.

The high hydrogeological risk is increased by “continuous climate change, with a tendency toward equatorialization, manifested in a greater frequency of violent events, seasonal variations, and a rapid transition from sun to adverse weather, especially torrential rain,” says the report.

After months of drought, an unprecedented two-day flood overflowed the rivers in that region, causing landslides in the mountains and hills, especially in the area between the provinces of Bologna and Ravenna.

“More than 140 mm of water fell, about a fifth of the normal national rate,” explained the head of Civil Protection, Fabrizio Curcio.

Coldiretti’s chief said that extreme events, from severe droughts to heavy rains, with floods and landslides “caused damage in rural areas of more than six billion euros last year”.

mem / orth