Isola Vicentina (Italy) signed the EU’s Mayors Adapt initiative (current Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy) in 2014 and since then started the elaboration process of its Municipal Water Management Plan (MWMP) in order to integrate climate change adaptation into its water management policies. For this purpose, Isola Vicentina Mayor engaged the “Planning Climate Change” research group at the IUAV University of Venice and Green-Dev studio, a local consultancy firm.
The plan analysed each drainage basin, river and stream flowing through the municipality, evaluating their maximum water flow rate and flood-wave size with different return periods (5, 10, 20, 30, 100, 300-years). The adaptation measures promoted by the plan took into account the statistically evaluated dimension of extreme flooding events according to these different return periods, including climate change effects. Identified critical issues were the starting point to plan prevention and preparedness measures, as well as about 50 punctual protection measures. The plan was approved by the end of 2016 and planned measures will be implemented from 2017 to 2022. A few structural and non-structural measures are being already implemented; specifically: (i) a management and maintenance regulation framework over small private ditches was adopted, (ii) one of the three planned water retention areas is now under construction, and (iii) a ten-hectare pilot area was identified to simulate how the preservation of woodlands can improve the resilience of the municipal territory to flooding and landslides.