Abstract

The Damaging Hydrogeological Events (DHEs) can be defined as the occurrence of one or more simultaneousphenomena, such as droughts, windstorms, heat waves, landslides, floods and secondary floods (i.e. rapidaccumulation or pounding of surface water with very low flow velocity), causing damages. They represent aserious problem, especially in DHE-prone areas with growing urbanization, where the infiltration capability islimited by buildings and where the vulnerability is higher than other areas.The paper proposes a methodology, based on both historical and time series approaches, used for describing theinfluence of climatic variability and urban development on the number of phenomena observed.The historical approach is finalised to collect phenomenon historical data, very important for the comprehensionof the evolution of a study area. Phenomenon historical data is useful for expanding the historical period ofinvestigation in order to assess the occurrence trend of DHEs. The historical analysis of DHEs can supportdecision making and land-use planning, ultimately reducing natural risks.The time series approach includes the collection and the statistical analysis of climatic data (monthly rainfall, wetdays, rainfall intensity, and temperature), useful to characterise the climate variations and trends and to roughlyassess the effects of these trends on river discharge and on the triggering of landslides. The time series approach iscompleted by tools to analyse simultaneously all data types.The study of land use variations, with a special emphasis on the urban areas, is important to understand how themodifications occurred in the territory, especially in terms of vulnerability, could influence the occurrence ofDHEs. The methodology can be applied simultaneously to floods and landslides and was tested considering themunicipality of Bari (southern Italy), particularly affected by flood events.Since the climate trend (decreasing trend of rainfall and rainfall intensity and an increasing trend of wet days andtemperatures) does not show favourable conditions for the increase of the annual number of damaging floods, itstrend is increasing. The role of anthropogenic modifications and the mismanagement of risk-prone areas shouldbe considered to justify the increasing occurrences of floods.A validation of this hypothesis comes from the study of land use modifications, carried out comparing differenttemporal levels of land use (from 1959 to 2006). The analysis shows, starting from 1959 to 2006, a significantincrease in urban areas (of about 50%) on the entire regional territory.The municipality of Bari, the regional main town, has undergone a remarkable development of its urban areas,from 12.45 Km2 in 1959 to 58.82 Km2 in 2006. The consequent increased vulnerability of this area has beenhighlighted during the recent flood event occurred in 2005, which caused six casualties, numerous injuries anddamages to

Autore Pugliese

• Polemio Maurizio

Tutti gli autori

• T. Lonigro; M. Polemio

Titolo volume/Rivista

Geophysical research abstracts

Anno di pubblicazione

2014

ISSN

1607-7962

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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