Abstract. This paper presents a methodological approach to both identifying and characterising Widespread Landslide Events (WLE), defined as the occurrence of several landslides through wide areas (thousands of square kilometres). This approach is based on a comparative analysis of two historical databases: a rainfall database and a landslide database, both concerning the same period. This methodology was tested on Calabria (Southern Italy) by analysing a period of more than 80 yr. The data allowed the individuation of 25 WLEs generated by the following: (a) a single rainfall event (RE), (b) a few distinct but temporarily close REs, or (c) several consecutive REs occurring over a period of up to two months. An empirical curve, obtained by interpolating the number of landslides occurred during the WLEs and the average values of cumulative rainfall that triggered them enables the individuation of the relationship between rainfall and number of landslides. The proposed methodological approach can be used wherever historical series of both rainfall and landslides are available. The results can be useful for monitoring the development of events and for the planning of emergency management.
Abstract. This study investigates precipitation variability in five regions of Southern Italy (Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily) using a homogeneous database of about 70 rain gauges with more than 50 years of observation. First, a statistical analysis was performed through the Mann-Kendall non-parametric test in order to determine rainfall the trend on both yearly and seasonal scales. Then, the relationship between the rainfall and some teleconnection pattern indexes was investigated using Spearman's test. The results show remarkable statistically significant negative trends for annual and winter aggregations in most part of the series. Moreover, a strong correlation has emerged between the teleconnection patterns and precipitation in Southern Italy, particularly in winter and on the Tyrrhenian side of the study area.
In: Kreibich , H , Aerts , J C J H , Apel , H , Arnbjerg-Nielsen , K , Baldassarre , G D , Bouwer , L M , Bubeck , P , Caloiero , T , Cortes , M , Do , C , Gain , A K , Giampa , V , Kuhlicke , C , Kundewicz , Z W , Llasat , M C , Mård , J , Matczak , P , Mazzoleni , M , Molinari , D , Nguyen , V D , Petrucci , O , Schröter , K , Slager , K , Thieken , A H , Vorogushyn , S & Merz , B 2016 , ' Drivers of flood damage on event level ' , Geophysical Research Abstracts , vol. 18 .
Flood risk is dynamic and influenced by many processes related to hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Flood damage increased significantly over the past decades, however, resulting overall economic loss per event is an aggregated indicator and it is difficult to attribute causes to this increasing trend. Much has been learned about damaging processes during floods at the micro-scale, e.g. building level. However, little is known about the main factors determining the amount of flood damage on event level. Thus, we analyse and compare paired flood events, i.e. consecutive, similar damaging floods that occurred in the same area. In analogy to 'Paired catchment studies' - a well-established method in hydrology to understand how changes in land use affect streamflow – we will investigate how and why resulting flood damage in a region differed between the first and second consecutive flood events. One example are the 2002 and 2013 floods in the Elbe and Danube catchments in Germany. The 2002 flood caused the highest economic damage (EUR 11600 million) due to a natural hazard event in Germany. Damage was so high due to extreme flood hazard triggered by extreme precipitation and a high number of resulting dyke breaches. Additionally, exposure hotspots like the city of Dresden at the Elbe river as well as some smaller municipalities at the river Mulde (e.g. Grimma, Eilenburg, Bitterfeld, Dessau) were severely impacted. However, affected parties and authorities learned from the extreme flood in 2002, and many governmental flood risk programs and initiatives were launched. Considerable improvements since 2002 occurred on many levels that deal with flood risk reduction and disaster response, in particular in 1) increased flood prevention by improved spatial planning, 2) an increased number of property-level mitigation measures, 3) more effective early warning and improved coordination of disaster response and 4) a more targeted maintenance of flood defence systems and their deliberate relocation. Thus, despite higher hydrological severity damage due to the 2013 flood was significantly lower than in 2002. In our international comparative paired event study we investigate under which circumstances similar or contrasting processes occurred and hope to identify common key processes which determine flood damage on event level.
