Environmental surveillance and volcanic risk. Bradyseismic crisis and vulnerability of built-up areas: new intervention strategies on public and private heritage.

The catastrophic events linked to natural phenomena that periodically strike Italy generate an increasingly irremediable rift between the State and the population, which is also tangible in the litigation that has become an increasingly frequent consequence of disasters in recent times. The media clamour that judicial events take on increasingly generates an image of a State that is impeccable in the solidarity phase but remains highly negligent in risk prevention policies. Compared to this vision, the recent commitment of the legislator to prevent the damaging effects of bradyseism in the Phlegraean Fields area goes against the trend.

However, many of the prevention activities identified, which can be implemented thanks to the appropriations provided, risk being compromised on a practical level due to the considerable rate of abuse in the area concerned, which makes the territory more fragile and the population less safe.     

It is strategically necessary to increase the level of public safety in an area that, on this point, presents undeniable criticalities: among the measures that can be implemented, it is desirable, for example, to perform an immediate analysis of the seismic vulnerability of the public and private building stock so as to allow preventive safety measures. In addition, an update of the General Evacuation Plan is needed, which currently, according to studies, would not allow the area, with its very high population density, to be cleared in a few hours.