New insights on rainfall triggering flow-like landslides and flash floods in Campania (Southern Italy)

Abstract

The term debris flow is associated with a wide variety of phenomena as debris slides, debris torrents, debris floods, mudflows, mudslides, hyper-concentrated flows and lahars (in volcanic slopes). In historical times, they frequently occurred in Campania Region (Southern Italy) producing damage and casualties. In this paper, more than 200 events described as “debris flow” between 1924 and 2020 were collected. They are mainly located in the central sector of the region, which is characterized by pyroclastic deposits resting on steep carbonate and volcanic slopes and highly prone to hydrogeological hazards. Debris flow events registered in the region were classified as “gravity processes” (flow-like landslides, FL) or “fluvial processes” (flash floods, FF). This classification is fundamental for designing effective early warning systems and risk mitigation plans, since the two phenomena are triggered by different types of rainfall events and are responsible for damages of different magnitude. In this study, a large rainfall database was explored to identify the time scales and seasonality of the two classes of rainfall events, respectively triggering the two phenomena.