The 10th November 2014 flash-flood event in Chiavari city (Eastern Liguria, Italy)

Francesco Faccini (a), Paola Giostrella (c), Riccardo Lazzeri (b), Massimo Melillo (c), Emanuele Raso (a) & Anna Roccati (c)
(a) Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Genoa, Coso Europa, 26, 16132 Genoa, Italy. E-mail: faccini@unige.it (b) Geologist consultant, Chiavari (Genoa), Italy. E-mail: lazzeririccardo@yahoo.it (c) National Research Council, Research Institute for Geo-hydrological Protection, Perugia, Italy. E-mail: paola.giostrella@irpi.cnr.it

Due to short durations of heavy rainfalls that occurred between November 10th and 11th, 2014 the Chiavari area was the subject of a serious geo-hydrological event determined by the simultaneous overflowing of the Entella and Rupinaro streams. In the lower Fontanabuona valley (Municipality of Leivi) a landslide destroyed a building and took the lives of two people, while severe damages to buildings and infrastructures were recorded in the Chiavari historical center, Carasco and Cogorno. Between 08:00 am on November 10th and 08:00 am on November 11th 2014, peaks of rainfall peaks in Entella stream catchment order of 60 mm/1h and cumulated rainfall of 220 mm/24h were recorded. The levels of streams were immediately elevated, highlighting a concentrated time of less than 1 hour between 08:00 pm and 00:00 am when the level of the Entella stream moved up to 7 m leading to the flooding in Carasco, Cogorno, and in Chiavari (the Caperana district). Meanwhile flash flooding in the Rupinaro stream resulted in water levels up to 1.5 m in the old town of Chiavari.

Geo-hydrological hazard, heavy rainfall, flood risk, Entella stream catchment.