Plans have been announced to improve flood defences in Florence. Reinforced river banks, raised walls and low-alloy steel partitions, which will be deployed when and if necessary in the city centre, are three of the methods set to be implemented.
Costing just shy of 15 million euro, the campaign will get underway to secure the five-kilometre riverbank between Nave a Rovezzano and Ponte Santa Trinita on October 10 and will continue until December 2025.
“This will be the single biggest structural operation to protect the city centre of Florence since the riverbed was changed under the Ponte Vecchio, but the work won’t be visually impactful,” remarked Eugenio Giani, president of the Tuscany regional government. “By combining today’s weather forecasting abilities and technical innovations, response times have been halved when it comes to using mobile protection devices. The partitions can be assembled in just eight hours.”
The move to improve flood protection in Florence is part of a river-long system, which including the construction of a detention basin in Figline Valdarno and raising the height of the Levane Dam near Montevarchi.
The aim is clear: to avoid a flood of the magnitude of 1966 in an age of climate crisis and the uptick in sudden and violent storms.
