Governance Strategies and Tools Towards the Improvement of Emergency Management of Natural Disasters in Transboundary Areas

Cross-border emergency management is a pressing issue, especially in contexts where economic, social, infrastructural and natural interdependencies ignore political borders. Different legislative, administrative and organisational barriers can hinder the homogeneity, coordination and effectiveness of any emergency response to a common natural hazard. The GESTI.S.CO. project (Italian acronym for “Management of emergencies and disasters without borders”), co-funded under Grant Agreement No. 475062 of the Italy-Switzerland Interreg Cooperation Programme, has been designed to study and address this issue in the highly interconnected and densely populated border area between the Cantons of Ticino (Switzerland) and Lombardy (Italy). The main objective is to strengthen cross-border cooperation in the management of natural disasters through common solutions for the preparedness of local administrations on both sides of the border, in order to increase cooperation, coordination, integration and mutual assistance in case of need. The GESTI.S.CO. governance approach has produced many results: some of them have been included in the official procedures and tools of the institutions in charge of emergency planning and management in both countries; others, more informal, have helped to share knowledge and know-how and to improve the cooperation and response of stakeholders and local communities in the event of natural disasters. Some of these products have already been positively validated during some hydrogeological and wildfire events that occurred in the study area in 2021 and 2022. Such an approach may be useful for other transboundary areas where some results may be replicable under selected conditions.