Historical Climatology of Storm Events in the Mediterranean: A Case Study of Damaging Hydrological Events in Calabria, Southern Italy

In this chapter, based on the data available in a regional database, some severe damaging hydrogeological events (DHEs) occurred in the last century in Calabria (Italy) have been described in terms of both triggering rain and damaging effects. Among the analyzed cases, there are only three long standing events (1951, 1953 and 1972), while the others are shorter. As far as the triggering rain, the 1951 and 1953 events are still not surpassed, and fortunately it is the same for the number of victims. If we consider the event occurred on 2000 as an exception caused by the negligence of the municipality that allowed a campsite so close to the river, the number of victims per event shows a decreasing trend. This can be a normal evolution which occurs in developed countries, where, because of an improving event management, damage to people tend do decrease and damage to goods to increase. The seasonality is clear: the majority of the events occurred between September and November, which in Calabria are the rainiest months. In terms of damaging phenomena, landslides were always the most frequent type. Greatest damage, especially in terms of victims, was caused by floods, the effects of which were often amplified by sea storms. The interrelations between the different phenomena, as the relationship between floods and landslides carrying debris into the river network and the connection between floods and sea storms, confirm that DHEs have to be studied with a general approach and taking into consideration all the phenomena and their interrelation which can amplify damage and cause cascading effects.