Contemporaneity of floods and storms. A case study of metropolitan area of Reggio Calabria in Southern Italy

Abstract

The environmental balance is being increasingly altered by mankind’s direct and indirect actions. Waterproofing of territory and continuous climate change are amongst the main factors of hydrogeological risk. In the presence of complex orographies and particular geographical exposure, meteorological phenomena can have devastating consequences. Calabria, located in the southern part of Italy, stands at the confluence of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas and is particularly exposed to such phenomena. Its unique geomorphological formation makes it subject to flooding and sea storms that have revealed the fragility of its territory. When such phenomena occur concurrently, the effects can be devastating, both in terms of infrastructure damage and inconvenience to the local population, as downstream flooding interacts with wave run-up. We will analyze the history of contemporary flooding and storms in the Metropolitan Area of Reggio Calabria, which is located in the south of Calabria and in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Two case studies will be illustrated, one relating to the Ionian coast and the other to the Tyrrhenian coast.