Diachronic analysis of the settlements structure in areas of hydraulic hazard: the case study of the municipality of L'Aquila

The themes of risk mitigation regardless of its nature, together with that of increased urban resilience and adaptation to climate change, now define crucial issues in the political agendas of public administrations. While on the one hand the extreme fragility of the Italian territory represents the invariant aspect of the problem, however on the other hand, the lack of an integrated and organic approach to the theme has sharpened over time the effects on the anthropization of environments. The potentially calamitous events, which follow one another with a reoccurrence within a few years, denounce the weaknesses of the Italian settlement each time, often with dramatic consequences in economic terms and with the loss of many lives. The current national settlement structure derives from a poor cogency of the vast area planning, which has given the municipalities more and more decision-making powers on the territorial transformations. Adding to this is the lack of a full awareness and perception of the risk on the part of the social component, which therefore has generated a substantial indifference towards the multiplicity of natural hazards and increasing their exposure to risk. The objective of the work is to therefore reconstruct the evolution of the settlement in the areas characterized by a high hydraulic hazard in the municipality of L’Aquila, before and after the approval of the F.D.E.P. (Flood Defense Excerpt Plan) that occurred in 2008, also in light of the transformative dynamics induced by the earthquake of the following year. The punctual analysis of the structural and functional characteristics of urban fabrics and of the environmental context also makes it possible to provide targeted indications aimed at mitigating risk in such areas.