Recent Increase of Flood Frequency in the Ionian Belt of Basilicata Region, Southern Italy: Human or Climatic Changes?

Mario Bentivenga,Salvatore Ivo Giano,Marco Piccarreta

doi:10.3390/w12072062

Mario Bentivenga, Salvatore Ivo Giano + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/w12072062

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Abstract

The Ionian coast of the Basilicata region, southern Italy, is characterized by a remarkable archaeological heritage, valuable crops, and national and international tourism, contributing significantly to the regional economy. In the last two decades, the area has been affected by the heavy recurrence of flooding events, which caused significant damage to agriculture, tourist infrastructure, and archaeological heritage. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses of pluviometric, hydrometric, and erosion/deposition dynamics of main rivers have been carried out in order to investigate the role played by natural factors, climate changes, and human activity. The results show that flooding events in the Metaponto plain were certainly caused by extreme rainy events, but man has also played an important role. The Metaponto plain has been involved in a reclamation consisting of the building of an extensive channel network, which provided better land cultivation, easy access to the beaches, and archaeological heritage protection. The human impact related to the absence of channel cleaning has proved to be the most relevant factor that greatly amplified the effects of low-intensity rainfall events, thus triggering flooding events.

Highlights

Mediterranean countries are sensitive to the combination of climate and land-use changes [1].In the last few decades, the Mediterranean area has experienced an increase of both the frequency and the magnitude of floods and the extension of droughts which have led to huge geomorphic adjustments of river channels and coastal areas [2,3,4]
A key question is, how can our knowledge of these hazards associated to global change be improved? The growth of knowledge comes from integrated research that includes all physical conditions influencing the conveyance of water and sediments and, more in general, the river capacity and competence, which in turn will influence the physical conditions of a given point in the river network
All the flooding information is organized in a catalogue form containing a list of 67 flooding events starting from 1933 to 2019 (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

In the last few decades, the Mediterranean area has experienced an increase of both the frequency and the magnitude of floods and the extension of droughts which have led to huge geomorphic adjustments of river channels and coastal areas [2,3,4]. It is proved that anthropic interventions on slopes, rivers, and coastal environments, have deeply modified the natural environmental balance, favoring a paradoxical increase of events, triggering hydrogeological instability [8]. Changes in river flow regimes associated to global change are, ushering in a new era where there is a critical need to evaluate the hydro-geomorphological hazard of drainage basins from headwater to lowland areas. A key question is, how can our knowledge of these hazards associated to global change be improved? A key question is, how can our knowledge of these hazards associated to global change be improved? The growth of knowledge comes from integrated research that includes all physical conditions influencing the conveyance of water and sediments and, more in general, the river capacity (i.e., the amount of sediments) and competence (i.e., the ability to move grains of a given size), which in turn will influence the physical conditions of a given point in the river network

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