The geomorphological map of the floodplain of the River Taro (Northern Apennines) as tool for flood hazards assessment

In the last years, the northern Apennines have been stricken by some extreme meteorological events characterized by intense rainfalls fallen in few hours. These events caused a large number of debris flows and small landslides in the higher part of hydrographic basins (1st to 3rd order streams) while the flood plain of the major torrents (4th to 7th order streams) underwent bank erosion and flooding processes damaging buildings, bridges and roads. The integrated use of classic geomorphologic tools, like a geomorphological map and aerial photographs, together with high resolution LIDAR allowed us to recognize and mapping the parts in the plain of River Taro subject to flood hazards. The floodplain of Taro River is an intense populated area with many settlements, human structurers and craft areas. The flooding areas with different recurrent time (floods with a time of recurrence of 30-50, 100-200 and 500 years) were recognized mainly with a geomorphological and hydraulic integrated approach. This work is a contribution for the definition of flooding areas of the rivers combining high resolution hydraulic and geomorphologic data.