Flash floods and debris flow in the city area of Messina, north-east part of Sicily, Italy in October 2009: the case of the Giampilieri catchment

Abstract

Abstract. This paper concerns the analysis of the 1 October 2009 flash flood and debris flow event caused by a very intense rainfall concentrated over the Messina area. The storm caused severe flash floods in many villages around the city of Messina, such as Giampilieri, Scaletta Zanclea, Altolia Superiore and Molino, with 38 casualties and significant damages to property, buildings, roads and bridges estimated close to 550 million Euro. The main focus of this work is to perform a post event analysis, putting together available meteorological and hydrological data in order to get better insight into temporal and spatial variability of the rain storm, the soil moisture conditions and the consequent flash flood in the Giampilieri catchment. The event was investigated using observed data from a raingauge network. Statistical analysis using GEV distribution was performed and rainfall return period (storm severity) was estimated. Further, measured rainfall data and rainfall-runoff modelling were used to estimate soil moisture conditions, to analyse the hydrological behaviour and to reconstruct flood hydrograph. With the help of GIS technology and particularly spatial analysis, the volume of debris which has gone down into the Giampilieri village was also calculated. GIS maps with landslide and material deposit areas were produced and analysed.

The influence of grid resolution on the prediction of natural and road-related shallow landslides

“…Aronica et al (2012) showed that a generalized extreme value (GEV) simple scaling model described well the distribution of annual maximum series of rainfall for the study region. The GEV simple scaling distribution of the rainfall rate r F (d) can be determined as…”

“…The floodplain is densely urbanized by the municipality of Giampilieri Superiore village (Aronica et al, 2012). A dense network of forest road is reported for the catchment (Fig.…”

“…An average value of soil depth is used, equal to 1 m. The vegetation surcharge was not considered in the analysis since the study area is not covered by forest stands, and the dominant component is grassland. Parameters of the GEV distribution (Table 2) were estimated based on a regional analysis by using the 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h duration annual maximum rainfall for a total of 388 station years in a homogeneous region defined accordingly with the L-moment procedures (Hosking an Wallis, 1997), as reported by Aronica et al (2012). The LiDAR-derived DTM at 2 m was regridded on 4, 10 and 20 m grid-cell resolution by using the mean aggregation function in order to obtain coarser digital terrain models.…”

Flood and landslide warning based on rainfall thresholds and soil moisture indexes: the HEWS (Hydrohazards Early Warning System) for Sicily

“…In the recent past, many Italian regions were affected by natural catastrophes caused by these extreme rainfall events (Aronica et al, 2012). These facts led to great focus being given to the prediction and creation of the alert systems to avoid or, at least, to reduce the occurrence of this type of catastrophes.…”

Results of the post flash-flood disaster investigations in the Transylvanian Depression (Romania) during the last decade (2001–2010)

“…Flash floods are one of the most significant natural hazards in Europe, causing serious risk to life and the destruction of buildings and infrastructure Aronica et al, 2012). The potential for flash-flood casualties and damages is also increasing in many regions due to social and economic development bringing pressure on land use (Marchi et al, 2010).…”