The protection of territory from the perspective of the intergenerational equity

Natural disasters are some of the major causes of intra-generational disparities. Nevertheless, their more remote causes must be sought in the difficulty local and national communities experience implementing inter-temporal allocation policies. The consequent failures of the territorial policies trigger new inter/ intra-generational disparities whose effects will eventually accumulate as causes of further entropy decay. The latter cannot be metabolized by the social system and remains an environmental trace. Due to pressing budget constraints, it is increasingly difficult to generalize proactive behaviors: this has an impact on the individual tendency towards temporal continuity, resulting in a further reduction of the resilience of urban territorial systems (cities and infrastructures) whose allocation policies are strongly imbalanced towards the present. The contribution focuses on the issue of intergenerational solidarity in the context of disaster prevention and management and therefore on the indicator of this solidarity, the social discount rate. Finally, it presents a summary of two case studies on floods and earthquakes.