Flash Flood Events along the West Mediterranean Coasts: Inundations of Urbanized Areas Conditioned by Anthropic Impacts

Francesco Faccini, Fabio Luino, Guido Paliaga, Anna Roccati and Laura Turconi
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Francesco Faccini: Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Genoa, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Fabio Luino: National Research Council, Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection, Strada delle Cacce 73, 10135 Turin, Italy
Guido Paliaga: National Research Council, Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection, Strada delle Cacce 73, 10135 Turin, Italy
Anna Roccati: National Research Council, Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection, Strada delle Cacce 73, 10135 Turin, Italy
Laura Turconi: National Research Council, Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection, Strada delle Cacce 73, 10135 Turin, Italy

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-32

Abstract: Flash floods represent one of the natural hazards that causes the greatest number of victims in the Mediterranean area. These processes occur by short and intense rainfall affecting limited areas of a few square kilometers, with rapid hydrological responses. Among the causes of the flood frequency increase in the last decades are the effects of the urban expansion in areas of fluvial pertinence and climatic change, namely the interaction between anthropogenic landforms and hydro-geomorphological dynamics. In this paper the authors show a comparison between flood events with very similar weather-hydrological characteristics and the ground effects occurred in coastal areas of three regions located at the top of a triangle in the Ligurian Sea, namely Liguria, Tuscany and Sardinia. With respect to the meteorological-hydrological hazard, it should be noted that the events analyzed occurred during autumn, in the conditions of a storm system triggered by cyclogenesis on the Genoa Gulf or by the extra-tropical cyclone Cleopatra. The “flash floods” damage recorded in the inhabited areas is due to the vulnerability of the elements at risk in the fluvio-coastal plains examined. There are numerous anthropogenic forcings that have influenced the hydro-geomorphological dynamics and that have led to an increase in risk conditions.

Keywords: flash floods; intense rainfall; urbanized areas; damage; anthropic impacts; West Mediterranean; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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