A Copernicus GIS-based characterization of flood vulnerability patterns in Lombardy Region (Italy)
Abstract
The Lombardy region, Italy's economic engine, is particularly vulnerable to flood risk. It is indeed the most flood-affected region in terms of financial damage, consequently influencing the national growth and stability. Flood vulnerability is a significant components in risk management however quantitative flood damage assessment at regional/national level are scarce and estimations coarse. To address this essential need, we analyzed patterns of vulnerability through Earth Observation products offered by European Copernicus Services with the aim of obtaining an improvement of the parameterization of the flood damage assessment. A GIS-based model ingests these parametrization and determines the structural dimensions of vulnerability to be used in loss estimation and flood related damage curves calculation. The conceptual foundation for the quantitative integrated vulnerability assessment as an essential part of risk assessment is based on the Source-Pathway-Receptor-Consequence (SPRC) model. A crucial stage in the methodology includes the Copernicus Emergency service activation for the identification of the `elements at risk' as specific areas for restricted building type groups and the `critical facilities' as areas or buildings or infrastructures, under special consideration for their social and economic importance, the definition of their level of exposure to flood hazard events, the integration of all the available information into geodatabases. In system-based Geographic information, the hazard boundaries from the emergency Copernicus service and the reconstructed flood parameters are used with a `tabulate' analysis in each available `elements at risk' datasets relying on the land use/land cover classes. The output is an info-table, which has an entry for every considered zone where the vulnerability degree is expressed by the empirical damage or vulnerability curves derived from real damage investigation, through the relation between the flood risk and elements at risk. The output of this model significantly improves the understanding of economic impacts of flood risk at regional level and contributes as a decision support tool for cost effective flood risk reduction and mitigation, as an operational tool for regional disaster risk and climate adaptation strategies and plans.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMNH0320011R
- Keywords:
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- 1640 Remote sensing;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1817 Extreme events;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 4333 Disaster risk analysis and assessment;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 6309 Decision making under uncertainty;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES