(ANSA) - KARPACZ, 10 SET - Climate change and the pressure of tourist flows are the two challenges at the heart of the panel organised by the Venice Sustainability Foundation (VSF) at the 35th Karpacz Economic Forum in Poland. The discussion centred on the need for cities to anticipate risks and shift from emergency management to prevention. Venice was cited as an emblematic case - not as a model to be replicated, but as a 'stress test' for cities grappling with environmental and tourism pressures. "The panel explores these two pressures - the environmental pressure of climate change and the pressure from tourism - by placing cities at the heart of the innovation agenda," explained Damiano De Marchi, project manager for the VSF's Sustainable Tourism division. "Venice," he added, "can serve as an international benchmark for environmental resilience and a testing ground for sustainable tourism, including through the use of data to monitor and mitigate visitor flows. This framework includes our work with the City of Venice and the Veneto Region on the issue of holiday rentals." For Consap's chief executive, Alessandro Moricca, climate risk management must mark the transition "from 'after' to 'before'", through an integrated system of prevention, adaptation, insurance and reconstruction. Catastrophe insurance, he explained, can act as an "economic protection infrastructure", alongside prevention, reinsurance and public intervention. The speed with which damage is assessed is also crucial. The new role of catastrophic insurance experts at Consap, due to come into effect in January 2027, aims to ensure specialist expertise and consistent standards. The loss adjuster acts as the "bridge between the event, the quantification of damage, the insurance settlement and the start of reconstruction". CONSAP's experience following the May 2023 floods - having supported 38 local authorities, carried out 216 interventions and managed nearly 220 million euros - demonstrates that "it is not enough simply to allocate resources": administrative capacity, efficient procedures and speed are required. "Rebuilding well and quickly," concluded Moricca, "is in itself a form of prevention." (ANSA).