Environmental risk prevention, post­seismic interventions and the reconstruction of the public space as a planning challenge.

This volume of the Italian Journal of Planning Practices tackles the topic of ‘natural’ risks, focusing particularly on seismic risk, and on policies and actions addressed to prevention. These issues are introduced here under four main themes. The first one is the relationship between ordinary and extraordinary or emergency interventions. The way of approaching the topic of urban risk was mostly an ex-post intervention on the effects of natural disasters A long-term perspective allows the opportunity to grade and prioritize interventions addressed to risk mitigation and the protection of urban settlements, but this change toward a longer term perspective results as difficult to be actually achieved. The second question is the role of knowledge. Knowledge related to territory is a fundamental instrument of prevention, not just for technicians and decision-makers, but also for the general public. A multidisciplinary and multi-scalar approach is needed both for the analyses and for the construction and implementation of prevention policies. The third issue is related to the forms which intervention assume. In recent seismic events (L’Aquila and the Abruzzo region in 2009 and in the Emilia Romagna region in 2012), we can see that the State is developing a recentralization process, assuming a growing role in defining and managing interventions, also through the national Civil Protection Service. In this, we see a sort of inconsistency in public policy at national level. The fourth question is that of the role of industrial buildings and productive districts in the reconstruction. A particular sensitivity for this problem emerged after the earthquake in Emilia Romagna region in 2012 which struck a very important industrial district.