Environmental Intervention and Water Resource Management in the History of the Mezzogiorno
Author(s)
Bevilacqua, Piero
Abstract
Shows how the discovery of electrical energy that could be used in industry triggered a huge effort to take advantage of southern Italy’s water resources and improve its natural environment. In the early 20th century, primarily through the initiative of statesman and environmental expert Francesco Saverio Nitti, the rivers and forests of the south received particular attention as the central elements in conservation measures whose aim was to produce cheap electricity, but which also necessarily involved reforestation, state control of forestry, the embankment of rivers, and other changes. Southern reformers envisaged such plans as the way to launch industrialization in the south.
