Water Events and Historical Flood Recurrences in the Vietri Sul Mare Coastal Area (Costiera Amalfitana, Southern Italy)
The Basis of Civilization - Water Science? (Proceedings of the UNESCO/1 AI-IS/IWHA symposium held in Rome, December 2003). IAHS Publ. 286, 2004 95 Water events and historical flood recurrences in the Vietri sul Mare coastal area (Costiera Amalfitana, southern Italy) ELIANA ESPOSITO1, SABINA PORFIDO1, CRESCENZO VIOLANTE1, CHI ARA BISCARINI1, FIORENTINO ALAIA2 & GIUSEPPE ESPOSITO3 1 Istituto Ambieule Marino Cosliero, Calala Porta di Massa, intemo porto, 1-80133 Napoli, Italy eliana(5),gms01 .geomare.na.cnr.it 2 Archivio di Stalo di Avellino, Italy 3 Regione Campania, Napoli, Italy Abstract This study addresses problems pertinent to the municipality of Vietri sul Mare located in the southeastern comer of the Amalft coast (southern Italy). The physical landscape, the economic settlements, the social activity and the natural hazards characterizing this area depend particularly on water: meteoric, riverine and marine. Indeed Vietri sul Mare is located on a steep rocky coast deeply dissected by ephemeral water courses (the Stream Bonea basin) with human activities mainly developed on the narrow stream banks located at the base of steep sided valleys, or at the mouth of Stream Bonea. This exposes them to a high hydrogeological risk triggered by water events associated with heavy rain. Several historical sources report at least 22 flooding events for the Vietri area during the last three centuries, which caused severe damage. In this paper historical sources are combined with geological data in order to improve the mitigation of flood phenomena through the reconstruction of historical floods and the estimation of the associated risks. Key words flood; historical source; hydrological risk; rocky coast; Sorrento peninsula; southern Italy INTRODUCTION The study area is located on the southern flank of the Sorrento peninsula (Costiera Amalfitana), west of Salerno (southern Italy).
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