Hydraulic risk in urban area. Community and memories in historical centre of Acireale

The mainstream approach to environmental risk analysis uses probabilistic tools and mathematical models to evaluate the possibility that a given event will occur and its magnitude. This approach does not take into account the complexity of the socio-economic system omitting the uncertainties that result from the deep relationship between human, society and the environment. Risk assessment requires other contributions able to express and use the complexity not as a limit but as an opportunity. These contributions should be able to integrate traditional and qualitative approaches. Informal dialogues and life stories are useful to know community perceptions and territorial subjectivity in order to create a more complex image of the territory and to increase the awareness of the risk. This paper aims to illustrate the ongoing experience in Acireale, where a participatory process on the assessment and prevention of flood risks in urban areas has been started. The first part of the process was intended to rebuild the collective image of risk. Afterwards a collective experience of service learning has tried to transform these analysis into project. Questions are still many: could this process be a codified form? What are difficulties and opportunities of such a process? How does this influence the redesign of the city and community behaviors?