T31. Assessing and mitigating natural risks: the role of geology

The Italian landscape is shaped by the combined activity of earthquakes, volcanoes, floods and landslides. These phenomena and the hazards they pose are natural and are all manifestations of the youthfulness of Italian geology. Moreover, these four hazards are also strongly interconnected, e.g. as cascading events, and therefore must be addressed with a multi-hazard approach.
They have something in common also from the point of view of the associated risks and of their public perception.
Some of these hazards affect the same regions, the vulnerability and exposure of which are quite known and can be modified by the occurrence of the related hazardous events. This implies that geology can contribute to disaster risk reduction and mitigation in a multi risk perspective, in particular in the prevention field. Remarkably, the lack of prevention implies that - albeit with some notable exceptions - the risks associated with these phenomena have been steadily escalating, rather than decreasing.
The session aims to demonstrate that all adverse natural phenomen affecting Italy are the result of the same geological evolution, and that the contribution of Geology to risk prevention should evolve towards a more quantitative, multidisciplinary, multi-hazard and opern-minded approach.