Olga Petrucci1, Luigi Aceto1, Cinzia Bianchi2, Victoria Bigot3, Rudolf Brázdil4, Susana da Silva Pereira5, Abdullah Kahraman6, Özgenur K?l?ç6, Vassiliki Kotroni7, Maria Carmen Llasat8, Montserrat Llasat-Botija8, Katerina Papagiannaki7, Angela Aurora Pasqua1, Jan ?eho?9 Joan Rossello Geli10, Paola Salvati2, Freddy Vinet3 and José Luis Zêzere5, 2019, Flood Fatalities in Europe, 1980-2018: Variability, Features, and Lessons to Learn, Water (Basel) 11 (2019). doi_10.3390/w11081682,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/406017

Floods are still a significant threat to people, despite of the considerable developments in forecasting, management, defensive, and rescue works. In the near future, climate and societal changes as both urbanization of flood prone areas and individual dangerous behaviors could increase flood fatalities. This paper analyzes flood mortality in eight countries using a 39-year database (1980–2018) named EUFF (EUropean Flood Fatalities), which was built using documentary sources. The narratives of fatalities were investigated and standardized in the database reporting the details of the events. The entire dataset shows a stable trend on flood fatalities, despite the existence of individual increasing (Greece, Italy, and South France) and decreasing (Turkey and Catalonia) trends. The 2466 fatalities were mainly males, aged between 30–49 years and the majority of them happened outdoor. Most often people were dragged by water/mud when travelling by motor vehicles. Some cases of hazardous behaviors, such as fording rivers, were also detected. The primary cause of death was drowning, followed by heart attack. This work contributes to understand the human–flood interaction that caused fatalities. The changes in society’s vulnerability highlighted throughout this study contribute to manage future risks, to improve people protection actions, and to reduce risk behaviors.

Data from https://intranet.cnr.it/people/