ABSTRACT

In this paper some extreme flooding events occurred in the Campania Region, particularly in the Salerno province since the XVI century, and in the Somma-Vesuvius volcanic complex since the beginning of the XX century, have been analyzed. Through a multidisciplinary approach based on detailed bibliographic and archival documents investigation, besides geologic-geomorphologic analyses, in GIS environment, the landslide distribution and frequency in the last centuries, inside these two areas, has been examined, jointly with the urbanization evolution for the Vesuvius area. In particular, seven flood events, the 1581, 1588, 1773, 1899, 1910, 1924 and the 1954 floods occurred in the Salerno province, have been studied in detail; while the alluvial phenomena occurred in the Somma-Vesuvius district, repeatedly affected by disastrous flood events, and occurred from 1906 to 2011, have been reported. Although this study is not exhaustive, it aims to contribute, illustrating a methodology for data searching and analyzing, to a correct assessment and reduction of hydrogeological risk in the Campania region.