LAURA TURCONI

In Italy geo-hydrological phenomena are the most common hazards: every year landslides and floods cause damage and fatalities; Genova city is one of the most affected areas. Since 2000 scientific studies have demonstrated an increase in events, due to the rainfall regime variation and to the urbanization. Thematic maps are an essential tool for...

Landslides and floods, particularly flash floods, occurred recently in many Mediterranean catchments as a consequence of heavy rainfall events, causing damage and sometimes casualties. The high hazard is often associated with high vulnerability deriving from intense urbanization, in particular along the coastline where streams are habitually...

Numerous riverbeds and floodplains in the Western Mediterranean Area (WMA) have been affected by anthropogenic modifications during the last centuries. In recent decades, an increase in floods in the coastal WMA has been observed. Variations in the rainfall regime and anthropisation have influenced the relevant geomorphological processes. The...

The integration of field surveys, bibliographic research and multitemporal analysis of historical maps, aerial photographs and satellite images in a GIS environment, allowed the current and past geomorphological features of the old city of Alessandria and its surrounding areas, NW Italy, to be identified and mapped. Their analysis provided an...

Flash floods represent one of the natural hazards that causes the greatest number of victims in the Mediterranean area. These processes occur by short and intense rainfall affecting limited areas of a few square kilometers, with rapid hydrological responses. Among the causes of the flood frequency increase in the last decades are the effects of...

In recent decades, the Entella River basin, in the Liguria Apennines, northern Italy, was hit by numerous intense rainfall events that triggered shallow landslides and earth flows, causing casualties and extensive damage.We analyzed landslide information obtained from different sources and rainfall data recorded in the period 2002–2016 by...

Landslide susceptibility mapping is essential for a suitable land use managing and risk assessment. In this work a GIS-based approach has been proposed to map landslide susceptibility in the Portofino promontory, a Mediterranean area that is periodically hit by intense rain events that induce often shallow landslides. Based on over 110 years...

The effects of climate change on landslide activity may have important environmental, socioeconomic, and political consequences. In the last decades, several short-term extreme rainfall events affected Mediterranean regions, resulted in damaging geo-hydrological processes and casualties. It is unequivocal that the impact of landslides in...

In recent decades, the Entella River basin (eastern Liguria) has been affected by several rainfall events that induced widespread shallow landslides and earth flows on the slopes; roads, buildings, structures and infrastructure suffered extensive damage due to the instability processes. In this paper, a GIS-based approach for analyzing and...

Anthropogenic modifications at catchments scale may be reconducted primarily at soil sealing and streams culverting, even if important consequences result from roads density and, more in general, infrastructures as they cause landscape fragmentation, and agricultural areas extension. Their most important outcomes in terms of hydrologic balance...

The European Horizon RECONECT Project (Regenerating ECOsystems with Nature-based solutions for hydro-meteorological risk rEduCTion) aims to contribute to a European reference framework on NBS by demonstrating, upscaling and spreading large-scale NBS in rural and natural areas. The Italian RECONECT demonstrator is set in the Portofino Natural...

Urbanization in flood-prone areas is a critical issue worldwide. The historical floods, the urban expansion in terms of building footprint, the extent and construction period of inundated buildings with reference to two representative floods (5–6 November 1994 and 24–25 November 2016), and the ground effects and dynamics of these events were...

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Geo‐hydrological  risk  reduction  policies  are  becoming  a  critical  challenge  for  environmental sustainability, both at the national and international levels. The reason is twofold:  On the one hand, climate change has increase rainfall frequency and intensity, while on the other, ...

Riverbeds and floodplains in the Mediterranean area have been largely affected by anthropogenic modifications mainly with incision, narrowing and channeling of the riverbed. In many cases these changes have also involved the river network, from braided to single thread. The Ligurian coastal floodplains are historically affected by flooding. In...

The alluvial plain of the Entella River (Eastern Liguria), historically affected by damaging flood events, has been heavily modified over the past 250 years by human activity and natural processes. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the morphological and land use evolution of the Entella floodplain since the 18th century was carried out...

In this article the morphological changes undergone by the Entella River (Northern Italy) over the last four centuries has been investigated. The historical analysis has allowed reconstruction of fluvial evolution and shoreline dynamics and demonstrated their relationship to human disturbance over a very long period compared to most previous...

Il progetto Horizon 2020 RECONECT promuove a livello internazionale l'utilizzo di Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in aree rurali e naturali per la mitigazione del rischio idro-meteorologico e l'adattamento ai cambiamenti climatici. L'obiettivo è coniugare le necessità di riduzione del rischio con lo sviluppo locale e regionale attraverso una nuova...

Stone wall terraces are a largely investigated topic in research for both their landscape and cultural/historical value. Terraces are anthropogenic landforms that interact with natural processes and need permanent maintenance to preserve their functionality. In the Mediterranean region, ground effects related to intense rain events often...

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Flash floods are typical for the Mediterranean region, however they have been recurring at increasing frequency over the past few decades especially over the Italian Peninsula. The region of Genoa has recently moved into the international spotlight due to frequent and disastrous flash floods of the Bisagno River and its tributaries as a result...

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are usually defined as complementary or alternative solutions to "grey infrastructures" (traditionally made with cement) aimed at conserving and regenerating the functionality of natural and semi-natural ecosystems. The research to date shows a considerable potential of NBS to address the current challenges related...

Terraced landscapes are widely applied in many mountainous regions around the world as a result of the necessity to practice subsistence agriculture. Hence, they can be regarded as one of the most diffused anthropogenic modifications of the Earth's surface. Different techniques have been used for their implementation leading to the artificial...

In mountainous areas during intese rain events shallow landslides are often triggered adding their effect and enhancing the damaging consequences of flash flood. Many coastal area of the Mediterranean are exposed to such events, as recently largely happened in Italy, France, Spain and Greek. Large portions of the coastline mountainous...

Identifying  the  minimum  rainfall  thresholds  necessary  for  landslides  triggering  is  essential to landslide risk assessment. The Italian Alps have always been affected by shallow  landslides and mud‐debris flows, which caused considerable damage to property and, sometimes, ...