12:35 〜 12:50
[MP3-02] A social-ecological approach to disaster risk management applied to the case study of the Marche Region, Italy
Nowadays, disasters claim more and more severe tolls from human communities: even though they are decreasing in number, their impacts are worsening, also due to the current climatic changes. The core of this crisis are the unsustainable interactions occurring between humans and nature: it is a complex and extensive problem that requires flexible tools to be comprehended. One of such tools may be the panarchy theory: it allows to consider the mutual influences and paired evolution of the components of a multifaceted complex system. This is made possible by describing the unceasing transformations of every component through adaptive cycles and then arranging them in an interconnected nested hierarchy. As human activities are deeply interlaced with natural processes, they form a multi-scale, complex social-ecological system. Hence, a social-ecological approach based on Gunderson and Holling’s panarchy theory was developed and adapted to the questions posed by risks and their consequences. The aim is to shed some more light on how humans and nature interact and how such interactions can bring to disastrous effects, for both sides. Further, an attempt was made to include a quantitative dimension into the descriptive theory, in order to more easily recognise the possible critical issues within a social-ecological system. Hence, an application to an Italian case study was carried on, involving the 229 Municipalities of the Marche Region and focusing on flood risk; nevertheless, further implementations are also envisioned. The delivered results can serve as a basis to assess the efficacy of existing plans and to assist in a continuous monitoring of the outcomes. However, they may as well inform a more thorough endeavour that humans are called to undertake, devoted to designing and enhancing further effective strategies to address disaster risk mitigation and environmental challenges.