Strengthening resilience through participatory development of “life and social skills” in flood management

Floods events have become more frequent phenomenon all over the word and require to be promptly managed. The centrality of Public Administrations (PAs) in managing calamitous events is widely recognized. Nevertheless, the adoption of traditional approaches has become manifestly inefficient because of excessive delays. This paper encourages a participatory approach of different categories of citizen (engaged in volunteering, aware, not aware) in different phases of the calamitous event (homeostatic phase, turbulent phase, rebooting phase) in supporting the Public Institutions. Accordingly, the research question deals with the understanding of how it is possible to increase effectiveness of emergency response by overcoming the Citizens-Institutions’ gap. The research presents the flood event of Nure and Trebbia valleys (Italy) as emblematic examples of territorial resilience created thanks to the rational intervention in different phases of different types of citizens (mainly citizens engaged in volunteering, aware and not-aware citizens) in support of the work done by the PAs.