ABSTRACT

The conception of Global North is referring, from geographical point of view to the Northern Hemisphere located above the Equator and the Global South, but the expression is more used to describe a grouping of countries along socio-economic and political characteristics. The namely the part of the earth below the Equator is transforming more and more. Major dynamics of historical, post and new colonisation, greater economic discrepancy, politics power and subsequent accessibility to resources have created and engendered throughout the years the geographical difference. These phenomena inevitably lead to different approaches in spatial planning, territorial governance and particularly, in emergency assessment. This paper illustrates two different approaches to deal with natural hazards that occurred, one in the Global South, specifically the 2019 Tropical Cyclone Idai in the central area of Mozambique, along with the 2016 massive earthquake that took place mainly in the city of Amatrice in the central region of Lazio (Italy). This study seeks to investigate both hazardous events in their overall occurrence, focusing on the undertaken emergency approaches and the variety of difficulties encountered along these two challenging processes of recovery: geographical and geomorphological intrinsic features - the presence of the Indian Ocean and the configuration of the Mozambican country, so as the disposition of the Italian country over the Eurasian and African plate, resulting in a consistent number of faults throughout Italy -, multi-level approach of administrative sectors, legal framework and community awareness. This parallel discussion will eventually highlight the need to improve communities and professionals’ preparedness, learn from previous mistakes, capacity building and raise awareness towards more conscious, fairer strategies to tackle emergencies. To this end, the main advantages identified in the BIM technology that could make major changes in this field, are certainly interoperability and the possibility of simulating the work process in a virtual way, using a constantly updated template. These and other innovative aspects will be discussed and analysed.