Hydrogeological threats, such as floods and landslides, have always been a recurring cause of damage to people and things all over the world; for this reason, also in Italy, the Government has established Authorities that carry out studies for threat prediction and the planning of the implementation of protection and mitigation measures. While the primary focus of there Authorities is on risks to people and public and private property in general, this activity specifically focuses on the assessment of the hydrogeological risk for the national energy system infrastructure. A preliminary activity consisted in carrying out an updated survey of the hydrogeological hazard maps available on a national scale.

With regard to flood risk, information was collected on the assessments drawn up by national authorities in the context of basin planning such as Hydrogeological Balance Plans (‘PAI’) and Flood Hazard and Risk Maps (Directive 2007/60/EC). In particular, the availability of digital hazard maps that can be used and processed quickly and efficiently at a national scale was verified and a methodology was developed and tested to derive from these maps the water height values in correspondence with electrical system structural elements that are vulnerable to flooding.

As regards landslides, also in this case, the Hydrogeological Balance Plan maps were analysed and subsequently compared with the database of the IFFI project (aimed at creating an inventory of landslides in Italy) drawn up by ISPRA in collaboration with the Regions and Autonomous Provinces.

Since the existing flood hazard maps refer to the specific case of river floods, and yet in recent years heavy rains has increasingly caused the flooding of urban areas, a model aimed at simulating this type of phenomenon was developed and tested. In particular, the FLORA2D calculation code, developed in previous research periods to simulate river flooding, was modified in order to adapt it to also simulate flooding from heavy rain. The model was then tested by applying it to some areas of the city of Matera.