The mayors, metropolitan mayors, and regional presidents, as well as the presidents of the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano, are civil protection territorial authorities, according to Article 3 of Legislative Decree No. 1/2018.
In this capacity, they are responsible for multiple activities regarding the prevention and management of landslides, which include, pursuant to Article 6 of Legislative Decree No. 1/2018:
a) the implementation of national guidelines on civil protection;
b) the promotion, implementation, and coordination of civil protection activities, consisting of forecasting, prevention, and mitigation of risks, emergency management, and overcoming them, with particular reference to landslides and hydrogeological instability;
c) the allocation of financial resources aimed at carrying out civil protection activities;
d) the organization of the structures responsible for carrying out civil protection functions and the assignment of adequate personnel with specific expertise to these structures, also in relation to the activities of operational centers.
With specific reference to the prevention and management of landslides and hydrogeological instability, mayors, in line with what is provided by the Consolidated Law on Local Authorities, are also responsible, pursuant to Article 12 of Legislative Decree No. 1/2018:
a) for adopting, as government officials, urgent measures under Article 54 of Legislative Decree 267/2000, necessary to prevent and eliminate serious dangers to public safety, which is of particular importance in the context of landslide prevention and management;
b) for informing the population about risk scenarios, civil protection planning, and hazardous situations caused by natural risks, such as landslides and hydrogeological instability, or those resulting from human activity;
c) for coordinating assistance activities for the affected population in their territory, managed by the municipality, which provides initial interventions and implements what is foreseen by the civil protection plan, ensuring constant updates to the flow of information with the prefect and the regional president, as required;
d) for requesting, when the legal requirements are met, the intervention of additional regional operational forces from the region, as well as national operational forces from the prefect, ensuring constant updates to the flow of information with the latter and with the regional president during emergency events, and also overseeing the information activity directed at the population.
Mayors also issue urgent orders related to the urgent need for interventions aimed at overcoming situations of severe neglect or degradation of the territory and the environment, according to Article 51, Paragraph 5, of Legislative Decree 267/2000.
Finally, it is important to focus on the functions assigned to the prefect and their relationship with the responsibilities of mayors.
The prefect exercises various competencies within the National Civil Protection Service. In the event of an emergency, whether imminent or when its occurrence is forecasted according to the alerting methods established by law, the prefect, within their territorial competence, performs the following tasks, among others, pursuant to Article 9 of Legislative Decree No. 1/2018:
a) ensures a constant flow and exchange of information with the Civil Protection Department, the region, municipalities, and provinces, where delegated;
b) assumes, immediately upon the event, the unified direction of all emergency services to be activated at the provincial level, overseeing the implementation of the provincial civil protection plan, with particular attention to landslide management;
c) promotes and coordinates the adoption of necessary measures to ensure the intervention of state structures present in the provincial territory;
d) monitors the implementation of urgent services, including technical ones, at the provincial level.
For carrying out their duties, the prefect adopts all necessary measures within their competence to ensure initial relief, according to Article 9 of Legislative Decree No. 1/2018.
The competence of the prefect does not exclude the responsibility of the mayor. As clarified by case law (see Cass. No. 16761/2010), both the prefect and the mayor exercise concurrent competencies, even in cases where the mayor requests the intervention of the prefect, who acts through their own measures, in the presence of events that cannot be addressed with the means available to the municipality.
