Water management in the planning system

Stormwater management in urban and territorial planning is a topical issue that fits within the broader context of integration between environmental issues and planning. From a technical point of view, innovative legislation and urban planning should adopt sustainable drainage systems in order to increase the resilience of urbanized areas, and conventional structural measures, as fundamental support for integrated land use plans. Italian urban planning is gradually adapting to this innovative practice, with some differences in regional legislative contexts . The first local plan that paid attention to water issues dates back to 1994, in the city of Reggio Emilia, which introduced the coefficient of soil permeability, an innovative way to address the problem of stormwater management. Since that year significant improvements have been made in some receptive regional legislation. Stormwater management inevitably tends to integrate different areas of planning practice that should be connected. The design of sewer systems (hydraulic planning), a part of hydraulic engineering, should be connected with the planning of water resources (environmental planning) and with urban planning, responsible for the urban design of open spaces. At present, these three forms of planning are disconnected and their integration could be a positive way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of regional and urban planning. It is necessary to identify strategies and approaches that could improve the relationship between urban planning and stormwater management, and to improve urban planning at a territorial and local scale in order to increase the resilience of urban open spaces.