The combination of climate change and social and ecological factors will increase risks societies face from hydrometeorological hazards (HMH). Reducing these risks is typically achieved through the deployment of engineered (or grey) infrastructure but increasingly, nature-based so-lutions (NBS) are being considered. Most risk assessment frameworks do not allow capturing well the role NBS can play in addressing all components of risk, i.e., the hazard characteristics and the exposure and vulnerability of social-ecological systems. Recently, the Vulnerability and Risk as-sessment framework developed to allow the assessment of risks in the context of NBS implemen-tation (VR-NBS framework) was proposed. Here, we carry out the first implementation of this framework using five case study areas in Europe which are exposed to various HMH. Our results show that we can demonstrate the effect NBS have in terms of risk reduction and that this can be achieved by using a flexible library of indicators that allows to capture the specificities of each case study hazard, social and ecological circumstances. The approach appears to be more effec-tive for larger case study areas, but further testing is required in a broader variety of contexts.

The design of hydraulic structures needs to account for a trade-off between implementation costs and flood damages, as well as for the impacts on basins hydrological responses over a wide spectrum of events. In this work, a new methodology for dimensioning an in-line detention dam that integrates geomorphic, probabilistic and economic modeling is proposed. It is formulated as an economic optimization problem aimed at minimizing the sum of the construction cost and the cost of the residual flood risk on residential buildings. The optimization procedure was applied to a hypothetical in-line detention dam located upstream of the urban area of Castellammare di Stabia (Naples, Italy).

This work reports the results of a study on the effects of an earth levee in flow depth and velocity reduction found by mapping the flood hazard for the baseline and Nature-Based Solution scenarios for one of the case studies of the H2020 Phusicos Project, namely, the Jorekstad site, in the town of Lillehammer (Norway). To achieve this target, the study employed various modelling procedures. These included climate, GIS, hydrological and hydraulic modelling structured in an integrated workflow. By running the FLO-2D model, the flooded areas were computed, and maximum flow depth and velocity were assessed by varying the return period with reference to different settings of the antecedent moisture conditions.

This paper deals with the environmental characterization of a large and densely populated area, with a poor reputation for contamination, considering the contribution of environmental features (air, soil, soil hydraulic and groundwater) and the potential effects on human health. The use of Geographic Information System (GIS) has made possible a georeferenced inventory and, by overlaying environmental information, an operational synthesis of comprehensive environmental conditions. The cumulative effects on environmental features were evaluated, taking into account superposition effects, by means of the spatial multicriteria decision analysis (S-MCDA). The application of the S-MCDA for converging the combination of heterogeneous factors, related to soil, land and water, deeply studied by heterogeneous groups of experts, constitutes the novelty of the paper. The results confirmed an overall higher potential of exposure to contaminants in the environment and higher mortality rates in the study area for some tumours, but hospital admissions for tumours were generally similar to the regional trend. Besides, mortality data may be strictly dependent on the poor socioeconomic conditions, quality of therapy and a lack of welfare in the area relative to the rest of Italy. Finally, as regards the possible relationship between presence of contaminants in the environment and health conditions of the population no definite conclusions can be drawn, although the present study encourages the use of the new proposed methods, that increase the possibilities for studying the combined effect of more environmental factors.

The topographic and hydrologic parameters involved in the estimation of the debris flow peak discharge in a classical approach are usually assumed to be deterministic. As a result, in such approaches, the only uncertainty in the evaluation of peak discharge is the evaluation of rainfall intensity and frequency. The present study aims to provide a probabilistic approach for estimating the debris flow peak discharge through the use of a Monte Carlo simulation method. Studies on such landslides in pyroclastic deposits have been performed in order to identify potential source areas and the main depositional mechanisms. The standard Monte Carlo simulation is used in order to propagate the uncertainties in different paramaters, related to hydrographic basin modeling, and to obtain a probability distribution for the peak discharge, related to a given return period. As a numerical example, the peak discharge of debris flow in the basin of the Corbara Stream, located in the municipality of Salerno in southern Italy, is evaluated. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Mediterranean environments are characterized by a climatic regime with a strong seasonal variability. More uniform precipitations usually occur during the winter season, whereas short and very intense rainfalls occur during the fall and early spring that, in turn, trigger surface runoff and severe soil erosion phenomena. When this typical seasonality interacts with a territory substantially altered by anthropic actions, conditions can easily arise for environmental imbalances with serious risks for flash floods and landslides. Many of the degradation dynamics recorded during the last decades in western countries are also the result of the socio-economic changes after the II world war which yielded land-use changes with the urban sprawl process and the increase in human settlements of the natural environments. We are also witnessing a change in the perception of the natural environment and the relevant values. This study benefits from the availability of historical maps and rainfall time series to analyze the profound landscape changes occurred during the last century along the hillsides of the Somma-Vesuvio volcano, in the renowned piedmont area located at east of Napoli city. We are specifically interested in the changes and disturbances made to the hydrographic network to evaluate the increasing potential risks for flood and landslides along these hillslopes characterized by the presence of highly vulnerable volcanic soils, the construction of roads, and other negative alterations of the natural overland flow patterns.

This work is part of a series of studies being carried out within the EU-Life+ project ECOREMED (Implementation of eco-compatible protocols for agricultural soil remediation in Litorale Domizio-Agro Aversano NIPS). The project refers to Litorale Domitio-Agro Aversano that has been identified as National Interest Priority Site (NIPS) and includes some polluted agricultural land belonging to more than 61 municipalities in the Naples and Caserta provinces of the Campania Region. The major aim of the project is to define an operating protocol for agriculturebased bioremediation of contaminated agricultural soils, also including the use of plant extracting pollutants to be used as biomasses for renewable energy production. This contribution specifically address the question of evaluating the effectiveness of phytoremediation actions selected by the project in the pilot area of Trentola-Ducenta and will provide some preliminary results of monitoring and modeling activities. A physical and hydraulic characterization has been carried out in this area where poplar trees were planted. Monitoring of water flow, root water uptake and solute transport in the soil-plant-atmosphere is under way with reference to two trees using capacitance soil moisture and matric potential sensors located at three different soil depths, whereas plant water status and evapotranspiration fluxes are indirectly estimated using fast-responding stem dendrometers.

The present study introduces a probabilistic approach able to estimate the mudflow peak discharge through the use of a Monte Carlo simulation method. In a classical deterministic approach, for a specific catchment, the parameters involved in estimation of the peak flow (topographical, hydrological parameters) are assumed to be known. As a result, in such approaches, the only source of uncertainty in evaluation of the peak discharge is due to rainfall intensity and frequency estimation. In this work, the standard Monte Carlo simulation is also used in order to propagate the unceratinties in various parameters related to hydrographic basin modelling and to obtain a probability distribution for the peak-discharge flow for a given return period. As a test case, the peak discharge of a mudflow in the basin of the Mandrizzo River, located in the town of Cava dei Tirreni in Southern Italy, is evaluated.