Author(s)

ROSA VERSACI, FRANCESCA MINNITI, GIANDOMENICO FOTI, CATERINA CANALE, GIUSEPPINA CHIARA BARILLÀ

Abstract

The considerable anthropic pressure that has affected most of Italian territory in the last 60 years has altered natural conditions of coasts and river, thus increasing exposure to environmental risks. For example, increase in soil waterproofing caused a reduction in hydrological losses with a rise in flood flows (with the same rainfall conditions), especially in urban areas. This issue is important in territories like Mediterranean region, that are prone to flooding events. From this point of view, recent advances in remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) techniques allow us to analyze morphological changes occurred in river and in urban centers, in order to evaluate possible increases in environmental risks related to the anthropization process. This paper analyzes and describes the effects of anthropization process on some rivers in the southern area of the Reggio Calabria city (the Sant'Agata, Armo and Valanidi rivers). This is a heavily anthropized area due to the presence of the airport, highway and houses. The analysis was carried out using QGIS, through the comparison of cartography data of the last 60 years, which consists of aerophotogrammetry of 1955, provided by Italian Military Geographic Institute, and the latest satellite imagery provided by Google Earth Pro.

Keywords

river anthropization, flooding risk, GIS, cartography data, Reggio Calabria