Coastal Flood Hazard: A Quick Mapping Methodology. Case Study: Gioia Tauro (Italy)

Abstract

As a result of climate change and of growing anthropization for tourism and commercial purposes, coastal areas are increasingly prone to coastal flooding phenomena. Therefore, in order to plan and manage these territories, it is necessary to adopt methodologies for mapping coastal flooding areas. Currently, in the scientific and legislative literature, the mapping of these areas is not widely studied. This paper describes a quick methodology for mapping coastal flood hazard areas on QGIS. In particular, the proposed methodology takes into account the effects of sea storms, tides and climate changes, allowing to identify floodable areas. Also, analyzing a database containing information on the historically flooded areas in Calabria, a location where this methodology was applied was chosen. This location is a Calabrian town, Gioia Tauro, located along the Tyrrhenian coast, where in the last 40 years many sea storms have flooded the waterfront, causing damage to houses, bathing establishments and maritime works. Furthermore, the analysis carried out made it possible to verify the consistency between the mapping and the events that occurred.