Theme: Hazard
Active alluvial fans in Calabria, Southern Italy
Alluvial fans are known to be areas of high geomorphic activity, where debris flows and flash floods caused by intense and prolonged rainfall are a major hazard. In Calabria, southern Italy, alluvial fans are numerous. The exact age of the alluvial fans is seldom known, but most of the fans in Calabria are considered recent in age (Holocene).
Due to the significant increase in urbanization in the last two centuries, many alluvial fans are ...
Towards geohazards resilient infrastructure under changing climates
A trend of increasingly frequent intense rainfalls and changing rainfall patterns is causing a relevant number of landslides and floods affecting urban areas and engineering infrastructures such as roads, railways. Recently Transport networks across Europe experienced several failures the reasons of which are still poorly understood.. To improve the current situation, a step change in the way we design reliable and effective defence structures ...
Documentation and analysis of flash floods
Flash floods occur in small to medium size river basins, and are characterised by fast temporal evolution. Because of their intensity and short warning times, flash floods often cause not only major economic damage, but also loss of lives.
An integrated approach to documentation and analysis of flash floods has to include the following issues:
post-flood observations aimed at estimating peak discharge and reconstructing temporal ...
We monitor the Planpincieux Glacier, along the Italian side of the Grandes Jorasses, Aosta Valley
Glaciers are typical of the Alpine landscape, and an important source of water. Undoubtedly fascinating, glaciers are very complex and yet surprisingly poorly known. In the Alps, many studies focus on the volumetric changes of glaciers, proving their almost systematic reduction in the current climatic period. Little is known about the daily behaviour of Alpine glaciers. This is partly due to the inhospitable and not easily accessible ...
Flood forecasting and hydraulic risk
The project is focused on flood forecasting and hydraulic risk, i.e. the assessment of the effects of flooding in flood-prone areas also involving the vulnerability assessment of the hydraulic structures (dams, leaves, bridges, etc.).
The effects of flood events are not completely eliminated by structural measures, therefore it is necessary to develop complementary non-structural measures, such as real-time Flood Forecasting and Warning ...
Hazard of alluvial fans
In international literature, it is now widely recognized that alluvial fans are areas of high geomorphic activity. Debris flows and flash floods occur episodically in these environments, and place many communities at high risk. Calabria (southern Italy) is a region where alluvial fans widely occur. In this region, the presence of mountain fronts/alluvial and/or coastal plain, or deep and narrow valleys debouching into larger valleys are key ...
Methodologies for the analysis of alluvial fans
Some areas mapped in the Piani di Assetto Idrogeologico (Watershed Management Plan) of Piave, Brenta-Bacchiglione and Livenza Rivers require specific studies aimed at assigning a degree of hazard. Among the warning areas, there are numerous alluvial fans. The Soil Conservation Division of Veneto Region, in charge of the inquiry, identified the need to find an objective method for assessing the hazard of such ...
Dynamic flooding scenarios
The project activities were carried out in two phases:
"dynamic scenarios of flood risk" identification through hydrologic-hydraulic modeling addressed to Civil Protection activities (2009-2011);
operational implementation of developed dynamic scenarios of flood risk and results dissemination trough web-GIS technologies, also within the context of Floods Directive 2007/60 /EC (2012-203); flood forecasting models implementation; ...
Flooding-prone areas delineation
Flooding-prone areas delineation for hydraulic risk assessment for river reaches of the secondary hydrographic network in Tiber river basin
Hydrological study of the Paglia river basin
The Tiber River Basin Authority (ABT) and the Umbria Region (Service Water Resources and Hydraulic Risk), considering the verified underestimation of the flood-prone areas in the Paglia River basin provided by the Italian PAI (hydro-geological management plan) and the update of rating curves, decided to revise the hydrological study of the drainage basin in order to re-estimate the flood hazard maps for the Paglia River reach bounded upstream ...
Land cover change detection and monitoring methodologies based on the combined use of S1 and S2 for natural resources and hazard management
ESA Sentinels missions will provide enhanced capabilities in the revisit frequency, and the coverage. Their complete exploitation is in the combination of the two to advantage of a further increased revisiting time and in the use of different wavelenght domains. This reflects in the capabilities to detect features of changes induced by different factors including natural hazards and crop ...
Instability problems related to man-made cavities in the Municipality of Ginosa
The territory of Ginosa was severely affected by flood and instability problems in October and in December 2013, as many other municipalities at the boundary between Apulia and Basilicata. In particular, on October 7, 2013, four fatalities and serious damage had to be registered. Following these events, other instabilities have occurred, including the collapse of a stretch of Via Matrice, above artificial cavities, on January 21, ...
Stability analysis in the Fantiano quarries
The Fantiano quarries at Grottaglie (Taranto province) are an ancient sector of extraction of the local calcarenite rock, that is now used for concerts and shows. The instability phenomena observed in the quarries forced the Municipality of Grottaglie to ask to CNR-IRPI to perform stability analyses in the ...
Sinkholes in the Marina di Lesina area
Sinkholes are in Apulia among the main geohazards, and are at the origin of severe interactions with the anthropogenic environment, and heavy losses to society. Since several years the territory of Marina di Lesina is diffusely affected by development of sinkholes (that have caused an emergency state to be declared), mostly concentrated near the Acquarotta Channel, linking the Lesina Lake to the Adriatic ...
The Via Firenze Sinkhole of in the Municipality of Gallipoli
Among the most recent sinkhole events, registered in Apulia region, that occurred in Via Firenze at Gallipoli on March 29, 2007, greatly raised the attention by public opinion, having affected (likely, without causing any fatalities) the built-up areas of one of the largest towns in Salento. The event pointed out to the need to carry out detailed studies on the sinkholes related to artificial ...
Changing Hydro-meteorological Risks as Analyzed by a New Generation of European Scientists
The European Commission has identified the need for adaptations in risk management as a consequence to climate and environmental changes in several documents. The implementation of risk management measures such as disaster preparedness programmes, land-use planning, regulatory zoning and early warning systems are considered essential. Further, multi-risk assessment approaches are not used in planning practice: risk indicators are hardly used ...
DInSAR techniques for the assessment of sinkhole hazard
Sinkholes occur as sudden collapses of the ground, related to natural cavities produced by karst processes in soluble rocks, or to man-made cavities deriving from different types of human activities in different historical ages. Sinkholes are widespread all over the world, and the related hazard is extremely high, with very severe damage to built-up areas and human infrastructures, and heavy losses to the ...
GIS technologies for managing sinkhole hazard
The widespread sinkholes that involve large sectors of the Apulian territory are related to natural cavities produced by karst processes in soluble rocks, or to man-made cavities deriving from different types of human activities in different historical ages. The related hazard is extremely high, with very severe damage to built-up areas and human infrastructures, and heavy losses to the ...
Glacial hazards in the western Alps
The project is included in Operative Program of the European cross-border territorial cooperation "Alcotra 2007-2013". It brings together specialized scientific expertise Italian and French that deal to study the mountain and its dangerousness. It is divided into a part of studies conducted on the entire framework of the Western Alps and in actions on the pilot sites identified by the ...
Hazards in karst areas and mitigation strategies
The high fragility of karst terrains, and the deriving vulnerability to a number of possible events, together with the presence of significant natural (first and foremost, groundwater), landscape and historical resources, are at the origin of the project activities, aimed at the safeguard of karst environments and the mitigation of the related ...
Updating the list of Apulian municipalities with presence of man-made cavities
The widespread occurrence of sinkholes related to man-made cavities in Apulia highlights the need to perform a careful reconnaissance of the artificial caves over the whole region, and of their stability conditions. Knowledge of the presence and typology of artificial cavity, and of its main features, is a mandatory step for the mitigation of the sinkhole ...
Database of post-wildfire debris-flow activity in Mediterranean ecosystems
Wildfires can have profound effects on the hydrologic response of watersheds, and debris-flow activity is among the most destructive consequences of these effects. The continued high likelihood of catastrophic wildfires in Mediterranean climates has created the need to develop methods to identify and quantify potential debris flow hazards from burned ...
Mountain Risks: from prediction to management and governance
The observed increase in disastrous events over the last decades, associated with a low perception of risk by the communities involved, along with the lack of efficient, socially accepted and environmentally sound remedial measures are amongst the motivation behind this research project. The adaptation of a combined multi-risk-oriented analysis, in which the investigations focus more on the interdependence of events rather than on single event, ...
Karst sinkholes in urban areas in Florida
Sinkholes are among the main features of karst areas, and are extremely widespread in Florida, one of the sites most known for their occurrence and the likely interaction with the built-up environment. The Tampa area, in turn, shows an high frequency of events, which origin derives from different types of ...