David AlexanderCESPRO - University of Florence

Civil Protection AmidDisasters and Scandals

Disclaimer: I startedwork on environmentaland emergency-relatedproblems in Italy on the19th of September 1974.In 36 years I have failedto change things for thebetter. Before givingup, I would like to asksome awkward questionsand provide some evenmore awkward answers.

Analysis

• registered• archived• forgotten• ignored

Vulnerabilitymaintained.-

• utilised• adopted• learned

Disasterriskreduced

+

LessonsPast

events

The process ofdisaster riskreduction(DRR)

What is orthodox reasoningin Italian civil protection

?

Caveat lector: this publicationis based on self-assessment.

The orthodox approach: emergency response begins at the local level.

The Italian approach: in L'Aquilalocal administration was swept

aside and still remains paralysed.

The Italian approach: overwhelmingforce, regardless of cost.

The orthodox approach: response should beproportional to the size of the emergency.

The Italian approach: there isn't one.

The orthodox approach: emergenciesneed an incident command structure.

The Italian approach: either supplyit all from Rome or abandon thelocal forces to their own devices.

The orthodox approach: localself-sufficiency and autonomous

decision making must be encouraged.

The Italian approach: mind-boggling sumsof money have been spent on transitionalsettlement* and so far very few fundshave been allotted to reconstruction.

average *€3,750 per sq. metre,€280,000 per apartment (40 or 60 sq m)

The orthodox approach: transitional settle-ment should not impede reconstruction.

The Italian approach: in L'Aquilano thought whatsoever was given

to this problem and the result is ahigh incidence of socio-psychological

pathologies among the survivors.

The orthodox approach: intransitional settlement the

social fabric should be preserved.

The Italian approach: the guidelinesare incomplete and out of date,and the training has been foisted

onto the regional governments withoutproviding any harmonising criteria.

The orthodox approach: guidelines,standards and norms should be issued

to ensure integrated disasterresponse and training.

The Italian approach: in less than adecade 600 ordinances have authorised

the expenditure of more than €10 billion,some of that on projects that hadnothing to do with emergencies and

were not really useful at all.

The orthodox approach: emergencymeasures should be used whennormal measures cannot be.

The Italian approach: disasters opena Pandora's box of bad practice.

The orthodox approach: disasters leadto improvements in safety and security.

The Italian approach: three municipalitiesout of 8,104 have taken this to heart.

The UN's Making Cities Resilient initiativehas only one Italian signatory - Venice.

The orthodox approach: disaster riskreduction (DRR) is a comprehensive

process of creating resilience.

What if there were another Irpinia 1980?

Conclusions

• Italian civil protection is democraticand well-organised at the local level.

• Much is known about hazards inItaly - so it ought to be, as theyare the most dangerous in Europe.

• Despite the plethora of courses(1000 in Lombardy region alone),there is little effective training inemergency planning and managementand no adequate standards exist.

Conclusions

• Disasters are excellent opportunities forcorruption and theft of public money,largely because surveillance of, and controls upon, expenditure are relaxed.

• The concept of personal responsibility isnot part of the civil protection culture.

• Italian civil protection responds toa logic of political short-termism.

Conclusions

Earth-quake

Politicalresponse

National

Regional

Local

Permanentreconstruction

Bad(functionalproblems)

Good(functionalitymaintained)

Elections

Public imageof politicians

Amelioration

Political impact on reconstruction

Suff-ering

Reco-very Transitional

housing and settlement

2009->: Neoliberalism or moreassistentialism? Vote garnering

versus economic stringency.

1908: Liberalism - the state isnot a big source of disaster relief

1980: Assistentialism - the stateis a major source of largesse.

d.alexander@alice.itprotezione-civile-italia.blogspot.comemergency-planning.blogspot.comwww.slideshare.com/dealexander