None of the families affected by the severe housing crisis in Niscemi would have invested their life savings in their homes had they known that a landslide could one day destroy them. This awareness lies at the heart of a proposal put forward by the Italian Society for Environmental Geology (SIGEA).
Developed in collaboration with Professor Luciano Masciocco of the University of Turin, the proposal calls for the inclusion of clear, easily understandable information on natural hazard risks in land-use and zoning certificates. According to SIGEA president Antonello Fiore, citizens must be fully informed about geological risks before deciding to purchase a property.
Data released by ISPRA underline the scale of the problem: more than 1.2 million people in Italy live in landslide-prone areas, while over 6.8 million are exposed to flood risk. Hundreds of thousands of buildings and businesses are affected. Each statistic, Fiore stresses, represents a potential disaster waiting to happen, rooted in inadequate awareness and failed prevention.
For this reason, SIGEA has long advocated the development of best practices to improve public understanding of natural hazards and is calling for an urgent amendment to Article 30 of Italy’s Consolidated Building Act. The goal is to make it mandatory for property sale contracts to include a certificate detailing geological risks—such as landslides, floods, earthquakes, storm surges and volcanic eruptions—based on official maps produced by public authorities.