Poliedra collaborated with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICA) at Politecnico di Milano to support the integration of multi-criteria analysis methods and tools within the RETURN and MOVIDA research projects.

The RETURN (multi-risk science for resilient communities under a changing climate) Extended Partnership, funded by the European Union through the NextGenerationEU programme under Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), aimed to strengthen Italy’s expertise, technology transfer, knowledge exchange, and governance in disaster risk management through the involvement of public authorities, stakeholders, and private companies. RETURN enhanced fundamental scientific knowledge while promoting its practical application and technological exploitation. Coordinated by the University of Naples Federico II, the partnership brought together 26 organisations, including universities and public research institutions, among them the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICA) at Politecnico di Milano, as well as non-profit organisations, government bodies, and other public and private entities.

Within this framework, Poliedra, under contract with DICA, provided support to the research team in Work Package 7.2 – Spoke TS3, which focused on developing guidelines for assessing the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies in multi-hazard contexts through the application of multi-criteria analysis.

The MOVIDA project, led by DICA in collaboration with seven other Italian universities, the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), and the Po River Basin Authority, mapped expected flood damage in the areas at significant flood risk across the Po River District. The project contributed to more effective flood risk management by supporting the evaluation and comparison of alternative mitigation measures.

Within the MOVIDA project, Poliedra, again under contract with DICA, provided methodological support for the development of a multi-criteria analysis procedure to assess and rank structural flood risk mitigation projects. The procedure considers a comprehensive set of technical, administrative, legal, economic, social, and environmental criteria. This plurality of objectives is reflected in the diversity of stakeholders involved in decision-making processes of this kind. The methodology is specifically designed for projects at the technical and economic feasibility stage, and classifies them into priority categories to support decisions on potential regional or national public funding. Poliedra also supported the design and test of a participatory workshop methodology aimed at fostering the identification of solutions through a transparent and broadly shared decision-making process.