Prevention and urbanism | A race against the dangers of climate change

Are European cities prepared to face climate change?

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and have devastating consequences. The landslide on the island of Ischia in Italy is just one of the latest examples. Our reporter Monica Pinna toured Italy, France and Germany to find out how European cities are adapting to the dangers of climate change.

Illegal housing and lack of maintenance

Last November, a landslide in the town of Casamicciola, in Ischia, claimed twelve lives. Five hundred residents have been evacuated from their homes. Some of them defend their right to live in a natural risk area, where a large part of the houses were built illegally.

It is investigating whether the houses affected by the landslide were built illegally. However, the lack of maintenance of the stormwater management system, together with the record rainfall, are key to explaining the catastrophe, according to experts.

“Floods cannot be avoided”

Last year, extraordinary floods swept through the Ahr Valley in Germany, causing more than 130 deaths. And yet, only 34 houses out of the thousands that were damaged will not be rebuilt. Residents say they’d rather take the risk than move. Stream management is crucial to protect residents. The Ahr, for example, has meandered again to reduce its flow.

“You can’t prevent flooding, but you can reduce the damage,” says Patrick Kluding, head of waterworks in Cologne, western Germany. Over the past thirty years, the city has developed one of the world’s most advanced systems for predicting the speed of flood propagation and keeping the Rhine under control through a mobile protection system.

shelter floors

After storm Xynthia claimed 29 lives in La Faute-sur-mer, in the Vendée region of France, in 2010, authorities developed a complex legal system to protect cities and residents from the effects of climate change.

“To go up we needed to get out of the house. But there was so much water that we couldn’t get out,” explains Elisabeth, whose husband and grandson died that day. Residents are now legally required to build a raised shelter floor. Elisabeth’s house was one of 600 that were demolished in the “death basin”, where there is now a golf course. One hundred million euros have been invested in the Vendée, a department in the Pays de la Loire region, to restore the main infrastructure against flooding, such as dams.

Despite everything, it is clear that cities across Europe are facing a race against time. And it is feared that climate change will go faster than the response we can give.

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