Area characterisation:
Terrestrial
Objective:
Insure controlled flooding to protect cities
Financing:
Public-Private-Partnership
Potential impacts/benefits:
- Covers controlled flooding liability for water boards
- Protects downstream urban areas from severe flooding
- Converts designated farmland to nature-based solutions
- Generates co-benefits beyond flood risk reduction
Actions:
Designed a community-based parametric product covering costs and liabilities of deliberate upstream flooding to protect downstream towns, financed by downstream beneficiaries and converting flooded land to nature-based solutions.
Organisations:
CMCC, Aarhus University, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation (GIB-Foundation), Po River Basin District Authority (ADBPO), ANBI Veneto, ANBI Emilia-Romagna, ANBI Lombardia, Regione Lombardia, Assicurazioni Generali, Banca d'Italia, IVASS
Contacts:
Case study referred by NATURANCE. For more information, please contact: info@naturance.eu.
The NATURANCE Innovation Lab led by CMCC designed a community-based parametric insurance product to support controlled flooding operations by water boards in Northern Italy's Po River basin. The product would cover costs and liabilities incurred when water boards deliberately flood upstream rural land to protect downstream urban areas from more severe uncontrolled flooding.
Premiums would be financed through a proportional tribute collected from downstream beneficiaries based on existing classification plans. Land designated for controlled flooding would be converted to nature-based solutions, enhancing flood risk reduction and generating co-benefits. Next steps include additional stakeholder workshops, international applicability testing through Network Nature Labs funding, and potential pilot applications linked to reconstruction efforts in Emilia-Romagna.
Sustainable Development Goals:
-
15. Life on land
-
11. Sustainable cities and communities
-
13. Climate action
