Flood hazard assessment of the fortore river downstream the Occhito Dam, in Southern Italy

Abstract

In recent decades the effects generated by human activity that have led to the reduction of the natural water retention capacity of the soil and those generated by climatic factors rapidly changing, have exacerbated the hydroge-ological instability and amplified the national territory vulnerability. Despite the flood risk in Italy is a topic of great interest, there are several aspects, especially in the management of flood events, that require further investigation; examples are floods caused by dam discharge. In this paper the distribution of hazard areas in downstream of Occhito Dam, has been carried out. Several hazard scenarios were considered related to only dam discharge or relating to the simultaneous presence of the dam contribution and contributions from river basins downstream of the Occhito dam. The results, validated using flooding photo, are presented and discussed, providing flow-rate in order to predict potential floods.