The recent floods that occurred in Italy’s northeast, leading to significant damages and loss of lives, are yet another instance of the severe and erratic weather patterns that have become more common with the changing climate, according to scientists. The Emilia-Romagna area, situated between the Apennine Mountains and the Adriatic Sea, was hit particularly hard due to its susceptibility to sudden and heavy rainfall.
Climate change will bring about more precipitation, but it will fall on fewer days, making it less efficient and more hazardous when it does. Floods and landslides resulted in the closure of more than 500 roads and affected 43 towns, causing billions of euros in destruction.
Antonello Pasini, a climate scientist at Italy’s National Research Council, noted that the trend has been towards increasing yearly rainfall, but with fewer rainy days and a rise in the intensity of rainfall during those days.
This shift has had a particularly devastating impact on northern Italy, which experienced two years of drought due to below-average snowfall in the mountains. The region has gone dry without the average snow runoff that fills its lakes and rivers during the spring and summer, making it challenging for rainfall to alleviate the situation.
Nello Musumeci, Italy’s Civil Protection Minister, has acknowledged that Italy must adjust and reconsider its flood protections on a national scale to meet the Mediterranean’s new norm of extreme weather events. Musumeci cited a fatal storm-induced landslide on the southern Ischia island last autumn that killed 12 people. He highlighted the need for changes in hydraulic infrastructure planning and engineering solutions to avoid floods that have submerged entire towns under mud.
However, Musumeci acknowledged that prevention is tough because of the costs involved. He also observed that Italy is more inclined to rebuild than to prevent. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions have resulted in more frequent and intense weather extremes, including heavy precipitation events.