Saving a world treasure: protecting Florence from flooding

The Firenze 2016 Committee was established in 2013 on the impetus of the Rec- tor of the University of Florence Alberto Tesi, who suggested that Florence Council, the Tuscan Region and scientific and cultural institutions collaborate in the prepara- tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1966 Florence Flood. All main Institutions both political and cultural have participated in the Commit- tee, as well as very numerous national and international Public and Private Associa- tions. A complete list of the over 100 participants of the Committee can be found on the Project’s website . In the period 2013-2014, the Committee was presided over by Mario Primicerio, former mayor of the Florence Muncipality and from 2014 by the Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella. As from 2015, the President of the Tuscan Region, Enrico Rossi, has taken on the charge of co-President. The Committee Secretary is prof. Giorgio Valentino Federici of the University of Florence. Since the foundation of the Committee, we have established an International Technical and Scientific Committee (ITSC) for an independent evaluation of what had been and what could still be done to reduce the flood risk for Florence. I wish to emphasize the importance and the innovative character of this initiative for our Country where the practice of accountability, common in the Anglo-Saxon world, seems to be considerably less present. It is indeed the case that, to help solve Venice’s problems, an international scientific committee was set up. This, however, operated under the aegis of the Consortium of companies responsible for the planning and re- alisation of the works, and therefore followed procedures which cannot be seen as an example of ‘accountability’. It is also important to observe that, with regard to Ven- ice’s problem, the Italian Government adopted, even amongst a thousand difficulties, quite a different strategy from that adopted for Florence. The special law for Venice has allowed the city of Venice to enjoy enormous funding for its defence and the safe- guarding of the lagoon, funding of an order of magnitude higher than that allocated to the defence of the city of Florence. How was such a different treatment possible? The flood risk “has been removed”, as we say in Florence. Many people believe that the risk still remains. For this reason, about three years ago, together with Mario Primicerio, former Mayor of Florence, we decided to set up the institution of an International Scientific Committee (ITSC). We were aware that a Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei, prof. Giovanni Seminara, was an expert of water engineering very much involved in the scientific problems related to the safeguard of Venice and its lagoon. He had never been professionally involved in the management of the Arno flood risk but, together with his high qualifications, he was the ideal candidate for the ITSC. So we asked him to extend the efforts he had devoted to protecting Venice to supporting the equally important aim of protecting Florence from the flooding of the Arno River. With his help, we then identified a possible composition of the Committee, inspired by the strict principle of independence that had guided us from the beginning. The choice of Gerry Galloway as Chair of the ITSC is also in line with the objective of seeking a guide of great authority and, at the same time, of total independence. And so the ITSC experience began. We wish to extend many thanks, also on be- half of the co -chairs of the Firenze 2016 Committee, Dario Nardella the Mayor of Florence and Enrico Rossi President of the Tuscany Region, to the members of the ITSC, and in particular to Gerry Galloway and to Giovanni Seminara, for their gen- erous and hard-working commitment. Note that the principle of accountability was also applied to ITSC. Indeed, the final Report was sent for review to two anonymous referees, who wished their identities to be disclosed, namely Prof. Murugesu Sivapa- lan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Prof. Demetris Koutsoyiannis (Technical University of Athens). The manuscript was also submitted for comments to the three former Secretaries of the Arno Basin Authorities, Prof. Angelo Nardi, Prof. Giovanni Menduni and Dr. Gaia Checcucci. Finally, let us thank the Rector of the University of Florence, Luigi Dei, for sup- porting the publication of this report printed by the FUP – Firenze University Press.