Territorial aspects of emergency plans for dams. The case study of Lombardia Region

A directive of the Prime Minister in 2014 required regions where large dams are located to develop emergency plans to coordinate efforts and resources in case of sudden unexpected release or the worst case of partial or total collapse. The risk for downstream communities and assets is clearly a significant one, as many dams have been built some decades ago and there are evidences of changing trends in meteorological and climate relate extremes that are particularly dangerous for mountain relatively small catchments. In developing such new generation plans, the definition of risk scenarios describing territorial dynamics and features (in terms of hazard, exposure and vulnerability) provides a quali-quantitative representation of potential damages and losses that may occur in case downstream settlements and infrastructures are affected or, even worse, caught by surprise by an incident. On the basis of a recent experience carried out within a collaboration framework with the Lombardia Region, the paper provides indications on the current problems and opportunities related to risk management, emergency preparedness and planning in presence of dams considering technical, social and public policies decision-making issues as key. The paper provides initial reference to the national and international experience on the topic to discuss more in depth how territorial aspects have contributed substantially to shape emergency plans for dams and what are the consequent impacts on ordinary urban and regional plans at different scales.