The sustainable management of flood-risk areas: Criticisms and future research perspectives

In Italy, the Legislative Decree 49/2010, issued according to the European Directive 2007/60/EC, introduced the Flood Risk Management Plans (PGRA) as a mandatory requirement for the flood-risk areas to reduce the impact of flooding on human health, environment, cultural heritage and economic activities. The PGRA plays a crucial role for the prevention and sustainable planning for risk areas, through the identification and evaluation of appropriate interventions, in contrast to the traditional approach based on emergency actions. Starting from the analysis of the PGRA requirements and contents, this paper aims to highlight the role of evaluation with respect to the plans implementation and the multidimensional issues emerging when laws and standards are applied. Many evaluation issues are still open, such as: (i) the uncertainty due to the long-term perspective generally used within this kind of investment decision; (ii) the estimation of the complex social impact of vulnerable areas; and (iii) the definition of a social discount rate able to reflect the intertemporal preferences of today’s generation over future ones.