Are European cities equipped to face the consequences of climate change?

Extreme weather events have wreaked havoc across Europe at an alarming rate in recent months. A landslide on the island of Ischia, off the west coast of Italy, last November is just one of the latest examples of the devastating consequences such incidents can cause. 

Euronews Witness travelled to Italy, France and Germany to investigate how cities in Europe are adapting to the dangers posed by climate change.

A landslide in the town of Casamicciola in Ischia last November claimed twelve lives and forced five hundred residents to be evacuated from their homes. 

But despite the devastation, some locals still defend their right to live in a natural hazard zone, where much of the housing was built illegally. An enquiry is ongoing to ascertain whether this was the case for the houses that took the brunt of the landslide. 

What’s more, the Italian State is accused of encouraging this illegal construction because of its policy of ‘pardons’, which allows citizens, for a fee, to bring their property in line with housing regulations. 

Critics say this primarily encourages illegal construction instead of preventing it, and that the only way to curb it is to tackle the underlying problems that feed it. In other words, decent housing should be affordable without having to resort to illegal construction.

However, the substantial lack of maintenance of the rainwater management system, coupled with a record level of rainfall, is key to explaining the disaster, according to experts.

The system used to manage the rainwater was built following another massive landslide in 1910. The weirs were over 10 metres long and 6 metres high. Today they're mostly hidden in the shrubbery.

"Unfortunately...these basins are now filled with rock and soil. The