Noemi Marchetti

This study examines participatory approaches to manage geo-hydrological risks associated with climate change, focusing on floods, landslides, and coastal erosion. The objective is to map hazards, participatory methods and tools, communication channels, stakeholder consultations, and governance scales involved. Following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines for systematic reviews and covering the period 2000–2024, it analyses 236 peer-reviewed articles from Europe. It also examines 49 practical case studies from three Italian Public Consultation platforms, complementing the Europe-wide academic corpus to inform transferability to Italian governance setting. Results highlight a dominant academic emphasis on flood risks and climate change adaptation, likely driven by recent disasters and global policy initiatives, whereas landslides, coastal erosion, and integrated geo-hydrological risks remain underrepresented. Surveys, semi-structured interviews, and workshops are the most common consultation approaches, with more structured tools mainly preferred in multi-hazard settings to ensure comparability. Dissemination relied largely on face-to-face and online channels, while innovative approaches such as creative workshops and citizen-science initiatives are emerging. Stakeholder involvement typically included citizens, local authorities, experts, and voluntary associations, whereas key intermediaries such as local media, insurance agencies, cultural institutions, and universities are seldom engaged. Overall, the review identifies priorities for thematic diversification, integration of multi-hazard perspectives, improved methodological reporting, and broader inclusivity to strengthen participatory climate-risk governance.

Risk communication, risk perception, and community behaviour are foundations to any successful disaster risk reduction strategy. The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly frequent, and communities need to be informed at all levels about how to respond and to adapt to climate-related risks. All components of a community – Authorities, scientists, stakeholders and citizens – should be involved in the adaptation and response processes, which can be achieved through various methods. A systematic review following the PRISMA statement was conducted to explore methods of stakeholder involvement and consultation, tools, and consultation channels. The different approaches may be influenced by the community composition, the timeframes, and the consideration of the most effective ways of involvement and communication.This study is part of a broader research effort within the national project REFOCUSING - “Fostering climate change adaptation of local communities through a participatory risk communication strategy”, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN 2022) which aims to identify the strength and weakness of current risk communication strategies in two Italian Municipalities areas. In particular, one of the objectives of the project is focussed on designing and implementing participatory processes involving key stakeholders. The participatory consultation process is intended to strengthen the interaction between citizens and Authorities, facilitating the exchange of information on the impact of climate change.The objective of the systematic review aligns with some specific project goals:To assess stakeholders’ perception of climate-related risk; To identify the strengths and weaknesses of current disaster communication processes; To initiate participatory processes involving citizens in the pursuit of climate change adaptation. A total of 302 scientific articles and examples of public participation were collected, focusing on floods, landslides, coastal erosion, and geo-hydrological risks related to climate change. Workshops, public events, and surveys targeting specific individuals appear to be the most commonly applied and effective methods. As a result, semi-structured interviews are frequently chosen, both to obtain meaningful responses, to explore the best shared solutions across all levels and categories of the community, and to allow for flexibility in adapting the discussions. The more localised the hazards, the greater the involvement of local stakeholders; whereas for hazards or issues with broader impacts, the intervention of regional or national levels becomes almost essential. The general tendency is to allocate economic resources and personnel in alignment with existing capabilities.The final goal of the research project is to apply the knowledge gained in the study areas and enhance the interaction and dialogue between citizens and decision-makers/legislators regarding the impacts of climate change and the adaptation strategies.

Despite the concrete evidence of human responsibilities with the ongoing environmental crisis, tangible changes toward low disaster-risk development models are slow in coming and delayed in implementation. This paper discusses the principles of geoethics underpinning flood risk reduction by analyzing the results of the EU project LIFE PRIMES (Preventing flooding RIsks by Making resilient communitiES). Through the administration of a questionnaire, issues of flood literacy, effective communication and individual responsibility concerning flood hazard and exposure were investigated. Directly engaging local communities, the LIFE PRIMES project appears to have increased citizens attention toward environmental ethics, thus providing an encouraging perspective for appropriate human–environment interaction.

The 30 January 2020 the World Health Organization declared the beginning of a global pandemic emergency. Italy was among the first European Countries to be severely impacted by the COVID-19 virus. This short communication describes the organisation of a project investigating different responses to the pandemics, studying the assessment of local and national Health Systems resilience to a biologic hazard such is a Coronavirus. Preliminary results highlighted a fragmented response to the epidemics across the Italian territory probably connected to different public health policies or local emergency management models. The implementation of a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis is provided to study which are the main important indicators to be considered in the pandemic management. The analysis highlights the successful and effective measures for pandemic planning considering different systems: health, economic, political, socio-psychological, demographic, and emergency.