Flash floods in torrential basins: the event of October 14th-15th 2015 in the surroundings of Benevento (Southern Italy)

Melania De Falco (a), Giovanni Forte (a) Nicoletta Santangelo (b) & Antonio Santo (a)
(a) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale DICEA, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II.. E-mail: melania.defalco@unina.it; giovanni.forte@unina.it; antonio.santo@unina.it. (b) Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e delle Risorse DISTAR, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. E-mail: nicoletta.santangelo@unina.it.

This paper deals with the description of the flooding event occurred in the surroundings of Benevento (Campania) between 14th and 15th October 2015. Several agricultural and industrial activities were strongly affected by the flooding of the Calore River and by the reactivation of some alluvial fans in the northern piedmont of Mt. Camposauro. The geological and geomorphological survey carried out in the post-event, supported by satellite images allowed for assessing the width, the magnitude and the damages occurred. The analysis of the rain data displayed very high values of maximum sub-hourly intensity, mainly concentrated on some sectors of Taburno-Camposauro Mts. The event resulted in no casualties, but it heavily affected the local economy, mainly based on the agriculture and the wine production.

Alluvial fan, Flash flood, Heavy rain, Southern Apennines.