Special Issue 2007 in Natural Hazards on “Modelling and simulation of dangerous phenomena, and innovative techniques for hazard mapping and mitigation”

Abstract

Hazard mapping and mitigation approaches take advantage of a number of different techniques of analysis, based on empirical evaluations of causal factors, historical investigations and statistical analyses of past events, numerical models (which range in type from simplified to physically based), laboratory experiments, and theoretical studies. Recently, the availability of powerful computing environments and of GIS allowed to effectively handle increasing amounts of data and to develop quantitative techniques of analysis for hazard evaluation and management. The need for coping with hazards is underlined by the long list of severe damaging events of different type, which affected different zones of the planet even in the past few months. Even when restricting the view to one single quite small country, the series of natural disasters appears to be undoubtedly excessive. For instance, in early May 2009—at the time this Preface is being written—Calabria (Southern Italy) has just come out from an exceptional rainy period, which lasted from November to March and triggered numerous landslides, erosive processes, and flooding. At the end of January, two men were killed by a debris flow which impacted on the A3 highway, and few other persons were injured: nevertheless, the effects induced by the rainfall had been even worse, if only eventful circumstances had not helped. Starting from the end of January, also medium-sized slope movements began to mobilise, in certain cases inducing severe damage to urbanised areas, cemeteries, and lifelines. Meantime, a medium-intensity seismic swarm devastated the surroundings of L’Aquila, in Abruzzo (Central Italy), culminating in the earthquakes of 6 and 7 April, characterised by M = 5.8 and 5.3, respectively, and causing about 300 victims. The real causes of such a disproportionate toll of human lives are still being investigated in detail; though, in addition to obvious local ground factors, from the very