Natural disasters in Italy: do we invest enough in risk prevention and mitigation?

Italy is exposed to a number of major natural risks. In the period 1944-2012, earthquakes, landslides and floods have resulted in huge losses with an economic cost (widely underestimated) of 3.5 billion Euros per year. Risk prevention and mitigation (RPM) should represent, therefore, a national priority and would require an adequate scale of financing. The Italian Government has earmarked financial resources for RPM through a multitude of laws. Based on an analysis of this legislation, this paper surveys the main measures financed by the Government to prevent and mitigate the seismic and hydrogeological risks in recent years. Besides, it compares RPM Government financing to the available estimates of the RPM financial need. It concludes that RPM Government financing, although increasing, still represents a small share of the RPM financial need, with, however, discrepancies across Regions.