Assessing hydrogeological vulnerability within Northern Apennines: an integrated spatial analysis in Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy)

The steady increase in climate change-related disaster phenomena in Italy forces territorial (and local) governments to meet a growing demand to revise mitigation and adaptation protocols. Housing solutions and models are called upon to update resilience strategies vis-à-vis phenomena such as the spatial convergence of various impacts and vulnerabilities. Complex vulnerability domains, often unpredictable, require new computational technologies and a clear definition of “spatial knowledge” according to critical issues, emerging challenges, and settlement perspectives. This paper provides an opportunity to test this hypothesis using spatial modelling and remote sensing techniques. The objective is to ease the identification of physical-environmental correlations/associations among endogenous and exogenous factors, namely between morphological states and climatic stressors “captured” through satellite images. The contribution is part of the European project AdriAdapt Interreg Italy-Croatia coordinated by CMCC (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change). It develops a test of spatial interaction between flooding, landslides, and drought. The test is conducted within the sample territory of Unione dei Comuni Valle del Savio (Emilia-Romagna Region), an area frequently affected by flooding events and hydrogeological instability. The results show a significant overlap between hydraulic performance and spatial texture, providing a new vulnerability vision in a multi-system perspective.