Urban flood resilience, a multi-level institutional analysis of planning practices in the Metropolitan City of Naples

Figures & data

Table 1. Overview of constitutional, collective, operational rules-in-use in flood risk management in the Sarno River basin.

Rules-in-use	Constitutional choice level	Collective choice level	Operational choice level
Position rules Who holds which position?	The hydrographical district Authority is responsible for the river basin management and the river basin plan. Flood risk and hazard maps are provided.	The region is responsible for designing and implementing flood control infrastructure.	The municipality is mainly responsible for land use planning. The region provides financial support to the municipalities to adopt civil protection plans.
Boundary rules Who participates and who not?	The technical committee of the hydrographical district Authority, which consists of representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Infrastructure, region, provinces, and experts, works on the river basin plan. Municipalities are not entitled to take part in the design of the plan.	The Campania Region, the former Sarno River basin Authority and Arcadis (regional agency for soil protection) agreed upon the GP Sarno project implementation. Arcadis was initially appointed as designing and implementing agency. A few years later, in 2015, Arcadis was closed and tasks and personnel relocated to the regional offices. A new phase commenced.	Together with the municipalities, the region, the province, and the hydrographical district Authority are (at the different title and in different stages) involved in the municipal planning via the issuing of binding opinions. Before approving the urban plan, the local community is invited to participate in the assessment of alternative strategies and to express observations. For what concerns emergency management, the mayor is in charge of civil protection.
Aggregation rules How decisions are reached?	The hydrographical district plans are adopted by the steering committee (consisting of representatives of the regions and ministries) of each hydrographical district Authority by majority rule and later approved by the Prime Minister.	For the GP Sarno (either in the former GP and later developments), the region was entitled to take the main decisions. The municipalities were involved in the decision-making process only at a later stage via the conferenza dei servizi. This aims to facilitate the decision-making process by gathering all the organizations and stakeholders entitled to grant advice and permissions for the final approval. A majority was required for the final approval.	Urban plans are first adopted by the municipal junta (by councilors and the mayor). Opinions issued by the competent authorities (including the hydrographical district Authority) are collected and the urban plan is later approved by the city council. The province specifically checks whether the urban plan is consistent with provincial planning instruments and issues an opinion. Concerns specifically related to the civil protection plan are approved by the city council (majority vote).
Authority rules What is allowed and what is prohibited?	The river basin plan defines land uses allowed or prohibited in flood risk and hazard areas, requires civil protection plans, proposes relocation programmes for buildings in risk areas and the processing of unauthorized buildings. The hydrographical district Authority ultimately decides on urban transformations by issuing binding opinions.	The GP Sarno planned a set of water storage reservoirs based on the flooding return time scenarios provided by the former river basin Authority.	Municipal planning is required to be consistent with provincial and regional planning. Local authorities are responsible for relocating buildings in free flood risk areas, for de-urbanization practices and the processing of existing unauthorized buildings in flood risk areas. The municipalities are in charge of land expropriation for the implementation of the regional flood control infrastructure.
Scope rules What are the intended outcomes?	The hydrographical district Authority aims at mitigating flood risks and improve water quality while preserving nature and biodiversity in the basin. The hydrographical district Authority advises for the combined use of structural and non-structural measures for flood risk management.	The GP Sarno designed a set of water storage reservoirs (100 year flood return time) and a second mouth of the river (meant to work as a spillway in case of floods). The water storage reservoirs were not designed to have recreational purposes during the low water. As non-structural measures, the project expected to improve pre-disaster monitoring and provide all the municipalities in the basin with civil protection plans.	Spatial development choices are designed to not increase flood risks at the local scale.
Information rules Which information is available?	The hydrographical district Authority provides indications to guide regional, provincial, and local authorities towards development choices that are consistent with the river basin plan.	Several interviewees – representatives of local authorities, NGOs, citizens – asserted that rather limited information was shared during the GP Sarno design phase to prevent lengthy discussions on the selected measures.	Indications are provided by the region and the hydrographical district Authority to the municipalities. The region provides guidelines to the municipalities to arrange for civil protection plans.
Payoff rules What are the sanctions for breaking any of the rules?	The hydrographical district Authority dispositions are binding for any authorities in the basin. If local authorities fail to comply with the river basin plan, the region takes action to secure compliance. If the region does not comply with the river basin plan, the Ministry of Environment secures its compliance.	The EU can decide to withdraw the funding if the implementation continues to be delayed or if the initial agreement is not complied with.	In case the local authority does not comply with the river basin plan and the regulations concerning flood risk zones, the region takes the needed actions to secure compliance. For concerns specifically related to civil protection, if the municipalities do not comply with the regional guidelines, the region can withdraw the financing.

Figure 1. Layers of urbanization between 1990 and 2020 in very high (R4) and high flood risk zones (R3). Source: elaborated by the authors from regional/hydrographical district Authority spatial data.