The Management of Water Resources during Drought in Southern Italy

The aim of this paper is to describe how one of the most severe droughts of the century in Sicily has brought awareness of the insufficiency of the water resources system supplying Palermo, due not only to the lack of timely infrastructural measures, but also of an appropriate decisional framework. The experienced shortage has directed research efforts to overcome this problem. As a matter of fact, the 1989–90 drought gave clear evidence of how an heavy hydrologic failure can result in a real crisis depending on the system which suffers from it. Unplanned urban expansion and increased demands levels, mixed with the lack of a drought-oriented water managenment, have produced considerable dis…