PEARL | Italy, Genoa

General information

Location	Genoa, Italy
Population	600.000
Catchment area	98 km²
River length	Bisagno River 30 km
Discharge	200yrs return period: 1300 m³/s, Bankfull discharge: 750 m³/s (T~50yrs)

In October 2014, Genoa suffered its most recent flash flood

Check the full video, property of Magazine24 TV

Problem Description

Owing to the large quantity of stormwater that drains through the streams of Rethymno city, flooding is considered to be one of the natural hazards. Additionally, extreme waves result in violent wave overtopping that occurs along the windward breakwaters of the harbour and threats the stability of breakwaters as well as the safety of human population. Huge quantities of seawater as well as the wider coastal area cause interruption in loading and unloading operations, damage the port facilities, disturb traffic and affect the coastal economic activity (shops, restaurants, etc.). Additionally, the adjacent to the harbour recreational beaches are exposed to erosion.

The following extreme events are affecting the Bisagno River Basin:

Heavy Precipitation: The Mediterranean region is a clear example where large-scale flows and topography are contributing factors to the occurrence of heavy precipitation events. In the study area of the Liguria Region, localized extreme precipitation is produced by large-scale flow interaction with regional topography.

Cyclones relate with a low pressure area (also Genoa Low) insisting on the Genoa Gulf. The depression bear rain, often intense, on the Liguria coast.

Risks associated to the case studies are flash floods, pluvial floods, a combinations of both flood types, and coastal floods including estuarial floods.

Research focus

Collaboration with other work packages in PEARL are as follows:

WP1: Application of the FORIN methodology and vulnerability assessment, coordination with RISC-KIT;

WP2: Application of the PEARL modelling toolkit to model the multi-hazards, coordination with RISC-KIT;

WP3: Impact assessment and holistic risk assessment, comparative study with RISC-KIT;

WP4: Assessment of response capacity of population, including warning dissemination systems;

WP5: Evaluation of engineering strategies, environmental strategies and socio-economic and institutional strategies.

The case study was recently presented at the LIFE+IMAGINE Workshop.