Set – up of a comprehensive framework for geo – hydrological hazard and risk assessment for statutory purposes

Geo –hydrological hazard is related to the occurrence of landslide and flood events that threaten built and natural environments, causing socio-economic losses The entity of damage is related to the land vulnerability and exposure to these events. Mitigation of the associated risk starts from a better knowledge of hazard conditions. The next step is to transfer this information to public administrations in view of its application in the risk management process. Thus, an effective cooperation between Scientific Community and Public Administrations should represent a mandatory step. Nevertheless, putting science into practice could be a challenging task, considering the actual applicability of rigorous methods in relation to the actual availability of data as well as financial resources. The goal of this project is to provide a framework, starting from ancillary open - data and existing methods, rank criticalities in the built environment and develop efficient tools for regulating future urban development. This research is promoted by the ‘’RETURN’’ (Multi-Risk sciEnce for resilienT commUnities undeR a changiNg climate) project, funded by the PNRR – National Plan of Recovery and Resilience, and is framed in the scholarship ‘’Responsibility on action of mitigation/prevention in the Civil Protection System’’ within Spoke 7 - TS3 (Communities’ resilience to risks: social, economic, legal and cultural dimensions). However, some of the PhD’s activities are coherent with the aims of the Spoke VS2 – ‘’Ground Instabilities’’. The following list explains the way the expected research activities could contribute to the goals of the VS2. - Construction and upgrade of a GeoDB by collecting and optimizing basic data (WP2 – Tasks 2.1, inventorying areas affected by or predisposed to ground instabilities). - Landslides susceptibility analysis: • delineation of optimal terrain unit (i.e. slope units) based on the spatial distribution of the predisposing factors, for the identification of initiation areas of different landslide types (WP2 – Task 2.2, contributing into the multi – scale approach by tailored slope units); • implementation of downscaled analyses aimed at defining an “influence” area where variations of predisposing factors (i.e., land cover) can impact on slope stability (WP2 – Task 2.2 and WP4 – Task 4.2, improving the prediction of ground instabilities); • empirical methods for the run-out assessment of rapid moving landslides (WP4 – Task 4.2, providing indicators to evaluate their comprehensive impact). - Customization of existing methods for defining new hybrid (i.e., morphological and hydrological) methods for the identification of flooded areas. - Identification of areas that contribute to the prevention of slope instabilities and/or flooding in the related “physiographic units” (WP5 – Task 5.1, identifying non – structural measures as mitigation solutions). - Implementation of the multi – hazard analysis’ outcomes into a preliminary index-based multi-risk assessment based on official data sources (i.e. ISTAT) (WP5 – Task 5.3, contributing to the other transversal Spokes providing a method for the construction of risk scenarios). Finally, it is expected to perform a comparison of the outcomes and current land planning tools for large scale policies, to get insights on possible application of the newly refined methodologies into risk management policies as a non-structural measure.