Planning with water: from end of pipe investment to operating on needs

The article is an account of research in progress at Naples University Federico II. The aim of the research is to confirm the thesis that the “end of pipe” approach, meant to improve the resilience of river basins, is often less efficient than solutions based on common actions designed to have a positive impact on the reduction of expected water flows. Even today, the solutions undertaken by the Public Administration are often based on the reconfiguration of rivers and canals and on traditional mitigation measures such as the construction of huge detention basins dug in the ground to temporarily store excess water volumes. This approach, however, in addition to being less efficient compared to interventions and actions tailored to the cause of the problem, has substantial impact on the landscape consolidated over time around the flows. The model used to try out the effects of different solutions on the hydraulic load is built by the basin of a small canal named Alveo dei Camaldoli, in the metropolitan city of Naples, characterized by the succession of agricultural areas, intensively urbanized areas, and degraded areas. This important artificial canal was the object of a proposed reconfiguration of its physical structure. The project aims to mitigate the flooding risk. Today it still has to be carried out because the public authorities in defense of the landscape are not favorable. The research has produced a list of solutions potentially reproducible on a large scale. Such solutions, through the model, have been tested on: the impact on the hydraulic load acting on the canal; costs and benefits of different solutions; administrative and technological viability; the possibility of further improvement and side effects