Environmental quality of emergency areas. A methodology to assess shelter areas liveability

Abstract

The types of risk that territories are facing today have greatly increased in recent years, having multiplied the damage that human activity has produced and continues to produce on the natural environment. With the aim to create a really resilient territory it is necessary to carry out an environmental quality assessment together with risk analysis, in order to build effective responses to the possible problems resulting from the changes in progress. This assessment should be integrated into the knowledge framework of existing planning tools, in particular as regards the Emergency Plan. Among the Plan contents, indeed, the identification of the areas for the accommodation of population affected by disaster is included. Nevertheless, currently localization criteria are mainly used, without considering the potential liveability of these areas.

This document presents the first results of a research aimed at identifying and assessing the factors useful to ensure an adequate environmental quality of the shelter areas, defined following the comparative study of evaluation systems used in different countries. Research aims to provide opportunity for broader reflection on the relationship that needs to be established between these evaluation systems and planning tools, in respect of which there is at present almost total independence.