Drought management in the Po river basin, Italy

Drought events have occurred more frequently in the Po River Basin since 2003, resulting to a gradual change in drought management. The examination of the key elements of vulnerability of the Po basin, and the analysis of the existing drought management framework, resulted in the changes that the framework is currently going through in order to better address the challenges in terms of future droughts and water availability. The fundamental point that emerges is that, although the system resilience is still high, there are some critical aspects, such as the ‘institutional vulnerability’ and the lack of adequate infrastructural and technological investments, that make the drought risk increasingly higher. There is the urgent need to shift to a proactive approach, designing structural measures, such as the investments in water infrastructures, irrigation technologies, hydrometeorological information systems, and impact assessment studies, in order to be able to prevent the negative effects of droughts.