Looking Forward from the Past: Assessing the Potential Flood Hazard and Damage in Polesine Region by Revisiting the 1950 Flood Event

River floods are a common natural hazard in Europe, causing high mortality and immense economic damage (EM-DAT 2009). Human-induced climate change will alter intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, hence flood risk (IPCC 2012). While large-scale assessments of flood risk dominate (Genovese, et al. 2007), the knowledge of the effects at smaller scales is poor or incomplete, with few localized studies. The approach of this study starts from the definition of the risk paradigm and the elaboration of local climatic scenarios to track a methodology aimed at elaborating and combining the three elements concurring to the determination of risk: hydrological hazard, value exposure and vulnerability. First, hydrological hazard scenarios are provided by hydrological and hydrodynamic models, included in a flood forecasting system capable to define “what-if” scenario in a flexible way. These results are then integrated with land-use data (exposure) and depth-damage functions (vulnerability) in a GIS environment, to assess the final risk value (potential flood damage) and visualize it in form of risk maps. In this paper, results from a pilot study in the Polesine area (Po river basin) are presented, where four simulated levee breach scenarios are compared. This technique is of great interest to decision makers who are interested in gaining knowledge about possible direct losses from river flooding events. It can also be an important tool to guide decision making and planning processes, to help them understand how to reduce risk to river flood events. As future perspective, the employed methodology can also be extended at the basin scale through integration with the existent flood warning system to gain a real-time estimate of floods direct costs

Torsional Vibrations of Fluid-Filled Multilayered Transversely Isotropic Finite Circular Cylinder

article n° 1650032International audienceAn analytical and numerical study for the torsional vibrations of viscous fluid-filled three-layer transversely isotropic cylinder is presented in this paper. The equations of motion of solid and fluid are respectively formulated using the constitutive equations of a transversely isotropic cylinder and the constitutive equations of a viscous fluid. The analytical solution of the frequency equation is obtained using the boundary conditions at the free surface of the solid layer and the boundary conditions at the fluid–solid interface. The frequency equation is deduced and analytically solved using the symbolic Software Mathematica. The finite element method using Comsol Multiphysics Software results are compared with present method for validation and an acceptable match between them were obtained. It is shown that the results from the proposed method are in good agreement with numerical solutions. The influence of fluid dynamic viscosity is thoroughly analyzed and the effect of the isotropic properties on the natural frequencies is also investigated

Incremental water charging in agriculture. A case study of the Regione Emilia Romagna in Italy

This paper explores the role that incremental water charging (temporary levies on water use) can play in reducing the environmental costs that arise during drought events. The paper combines a multi-attribute Revealed Preference Model calibrated at a local level (Agricultural District) and a regionally-calibrated Computable General Equilibrium model to estimate the impacts of incremental water charging on water use, water withdrawals and market income. The methodology is applied to the particular case of Italy's Emilia Romagna Region. Results provide a basis for the assessment of tradeoffs in water conservation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved