Building a resilient local council: evidence from flood disasters in Italy
International Journal of Public Sector Management
ISSN: 0951-3558
Article publication date: 10 August 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate resilience to extreme weather events (EWE) in a sample of Italian local councils (LCs), impacted by flood disasters. Whether resilience as a concept is adopted by the affected councils and factors that promote or inhibit LC resilience are explored.
Design/methodology/approach
Using semi-structured interviews, the authors investigate seven Italian LCs that were severely impacted by the flood event. An interview protocol was developed and background information collected. A number of themes were drawn from the interview transcripts and relationships with the relevant literature were examined.
Findings
The findings highlight that the adoption of the concept of resilience is at an early stage in the LCs decision and policy making. The authors find that the financial resources and the external relations management with other public entities, NGOs and local communities, promote the LCs resilience during and after an EWE. By contrast, bureaucratic constraints and poor urban planning restrain resilience. The findings suggest that LCs resilience needs to be distinguished from local community resilience.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature on public sector management and investigates the under-researched area of resilience within the context of the public sector, vis-à-vis, local government. In particular the realization that EWE are not the realm only of emergency personnel, but that local government managers have an integral role placed upon them during and especially after the EWE.
Keywords
Citation
Sciulli, N., D'Onza, G. and Greco, G. (2015), "Building a resilient local council: evidence from flood disasters in Italy", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 28 No. 6, pp. 430-448. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-11-2014-0139
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited