Are European cities equipped to cope with the impacts of climate change?

Extreme weather events have wreaked havoc across Europe at an alarming rate in recent months. A landslide on the island of Ischia, off Italy’s west coast, last November is just one of the most recent examples of the devastating consequences such incidents can have.

Euronews Witness traveled to Italy, France and Germany to investigate how cities in Europe are adapting to the threats of climate change.

Illegal housing and lack of maintenance

A landslide in the Ischia town of Casamicciola last November claimed 12 lives and forced 500 residents to be evacuated from their homes.

But despite the devastation, some locals are still defending their right to live in a natural hazard zone, where many of the homes were built illegally. It is being investigated whether this was the case for the houses that suffered from the landslide.

In addition, the Italian state is accused of encouraging this illegal construction because of its policy of “pardons”, which allows citizens to bring their property into compliance with housing regulations for a fee.

Critics say this encourages rather than prevents illegal construction in the first place, and that the only way to curb it is to address the underlying issues that fuel it. In other words, decent housing should be affordable without having to resort to illegal construction.

However, the severe lack of maintenance of the stormwater management system, coupled with a record amount of precipitation, is the key to the explanation of the disaster, according to experts.

The system used to control stormwater was built after another massive landslide in 1910. The weirs were over 10 meters long and 6 meters high. Today they are usually hidden in the undergrowth.

“Unfortunately… these basins are now filled with stones and earth. So the water flows out and down the mountain and there is nothing to stop it,” explains surveyor Guiseppe Colella.

Are floods now ‘inevitable’?

Last year, extraordinary floods swept through Germany’s Ahr Valley, killing more than 130 people. And yet, all but 34 of the thousands that were damaged will be rebuilt. As in Italy, residents insist they would rather accept the risk of flooding than move to another area.

River bed management is crucial to protect residents. For example, the river Ahr is allowed to meander again to reduce the flow.

“You can’t prevent the flood, but you can limit the damage,” says Patrick Kluding, responsible for the water supply company in Cologne, in western Germany.

Over the past thirty years, the city has developed one of the world’s most advanced systems for predicting how fast a flood can spread and for controlling the Rhine through a mobile security system.

Places of refuge

After storm Xynthia claimed 29 lives in the coastal town of La Faute-sur-Mer in western France in 2010 alone, authorities developed a complex legal system to protect towns and residents from the effects of climate change.

“To go upstairs, we had to leave the house. But there was so much water we couldn’t get out,” explains Elisabeth Tabary, a former resident who lost both her husband and grandson that day.

Residents are now required by law to build a raised escape floor.

Elisabeth’s house was one of 600 that were demolished in the so-called ‘death basin’, where a golf course now stands. €100 million has been invested in the Vendée region to restore major flood infrastructure, such as dams.

Despite all this, it is clear that cities across Europe are in a race against time. And fears are growing that climate change is happening faster than we can react.