The Versilia (NW Tuscany) is an important tourist region of Italy, enclosed between the Ligurian Sea and the Apuan Alps. Because of this particular geographic position, Versilia is often interested by intense rainfalls that sometimes cause severe damage and destruction. In this context, an historical archive investigation on the floods and landslides occurred in the Versilia River basin in the last centuries was carried out. The research aimed at contributing to the hydrogeological hazard assessment in the Apuan-Versilian area as well as to collect useful data to realize a catalogue of disastrous events. Thus, much information on many past events was analized. The results confirmed the hazard and vulnerability of the studied territory, which was emphasized by the June 19, 1996 hydrogeological catastrophe (14 deaths and about 500 millions of Euro). The studied area was hit by severe events also in 1636, 1774, 1846, 1885 and 1902, together with a lot of less intense events, causing however sensible geomorphologic effects and damage. Moreover, the considered events showed a tendency to recur in the same areas and a pronounced rise in frequency during the last centuries. This likely depends on many concurring factors, among which there are: increased number and reliability of the information sources; increased attention to the damaging phenomena; springing up of the elements at risk in hazardous areas; possible climate changes. In particular, in the Apuan-Versilian territory, the average frequency resulted of 1 sensible event every 4.2 years. Furthermore, a preliminary, but significant classification of the identified events was elaborated; such a classification was based on the event severity, deduced or estimated from the collected data. The main results showed that an event characterized by intensity comparable with that of the June 19, 1996 event could have a recurrence time of about 100 years. On the contrary, other hydrologic/pluviometric studies estimated the recurrence time of such an event at a few hundreds of years. It could be inferred that in some particular situation the hydrological studies underestimate the hazard. From this point of view, an accurate historical research could provide a significant contribution in evaluating the hazard of a territory.

The contribution of the historical data in evaluation the flood and landslide hazard in mountain areas: the case of the Versilia River basin (Italy)

D'AMATO AVANZI, GIACOMO ALFREDO;GIANNECCHINI, ROBERTO
2005-01-01

Abstract

The Versilia (NW Tuscany) is an important tourist region of Italy, enclosed between the Ligurian Sea and the Apuan Alps. Because of this particular geographic position, Versilia is often interested by intense rainfalls that sometimes cause severe damage and destruction. In this context, an historical archive investigation on the floods and landslides occurred in the Versilia River basin in the last centuries was carried out. The research aimed at contributing to the hydrogeological hazard assessment in the Apuan-Versilian area as well as to collect useful data to realize a catalogue of disastrous events. Thus, much information on many past events was analized. The results confirmed the hazard and vulnerability of the studied territory, which was emphasized by the June 19, 1996 hydrogeological catastrophe (14 deaths and about 500 millions of Euro). The studied area was hit by severe events also in 1636, 1774, 1846, 1885 and 1902, together with a lot of less intense events, causing however sensible geomorphologic effects and damage. Moreover, the considered events showed a tendency to recur in the same areas and a pronounced rise in frequency during the last centuries. This likely depends on many concurring factors, among which there are: increased number and reliability of the information sources; increased attention to the damaging phenomena; springing up of the elements at risk in hazardous areas; possible climate changes. In particular, in the Apuan-Versilian territory, the average frequency resulted of 1 sensible event every 4.2 years. Furthermore, a preliminary, but significant classification of the identified events was elaborated; such a classification was based on the event severity, deduced or estimated from the collected data. The main results showed that an event characterized by intensity comparable with that of the June 19, 1996 event could have a recurrence time of about 100 years. On the contrary, other hydrologic/pluviometric studies estimated the recurrence time of such an event at a few hundreds of years. It could be inferred that in some particular situation the hydrological studies underestimate the hazard. From this point of view, an accurate historical research could provide a significant contribution in evaluating the hazard of a territory.
2005
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/99847
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