Water Resources for a Sustainable, Smart and Resilient Urban Development: The Case of Italy

Water is a common good indispensable for the survival of living beings, it is a finite resource that increasingly conditions human economic and social development. The minimum biological need per capita for human survival is 5 L of water in 24 h. Without food you can live a month. Without water you do not exceed a week. In order to be able to talk about acceptable living conditions, no less than 50 L of water are required per day for every human being. Over 1 billion people drink “unsafe” water and 3.4 million people each year (5,000 children a day) die from waterborne diseases. The water emergency does not only concern developing countries but also the advanced Europe. Water governance affects both developing and all other countries. The complex supply and distribution and purification situation imposes universal strategies to guarantee socio-economic development in this delicate phase of climate change. The aim of the work is to present the main characteristics of the water management, including risks and opportunities, in the Italian case.