Components

The National Civil Protection Service is organized as a complex system. Within the system, expertise in forecasting, prevention, rescue and overcoming emergency situations are entrusted to several bodies and operational structures because the complexity of the national risk landscape requires the coordinated use of all the expertise and resources available.

The components of the National Service are identified in Article 4 of the Civil Protection Code (Legislative Decree no. 1 of 2 January 2018):

• State administrations
• Provincial councils
• Municipalities
• Mountain communities

Over the years, responsibility for civil protection has gradually shifted from the state to regional governments and local authorities. The main stages in this process were legislative decree no. 112 of 1998 and the amendment of Title V of the Constitution by constitutional law no. 3 of 18 October 2001. With the latter law, civil protection became a matter of concurrent legislation, so that, except for the determination of the fundamental principles, the legislative power lies with the regional governments. Each region has its own civil protection system.

The civil protection components, at different levels, deepen the knowledge of the risks and identify the interventions to reduce the probability that disastrous events occur or to limit possible damage. Among these actions, information to the population and information on how to behave in relation to the risks of a given territory are fundamental.