Information system on hydrological and geomorphological catastrophes in Italy (SICI): a tool for managing landslide and flood hazards

Since 1990, we have maintained a database of historical information on landslides and floods in Italy, known as the National Research Council’s AVI (Damaged Urban Areas) archive. The database was originally designed to respond to a request of the Minister of Civil Protection, and was aimed at helping the regional assessment of landslide and flood risk in Italy. The database was compiled in 1991– 1992 to cover the period 1917 to 1990, and then updated to cover systematically the period 1917 to 2000, and nonsystematically the periods 1900 to 1916 and 2001 to 2002. The database currently contains information on more than 32 000 landslide events occurred at more than 21 000 sites, and on more than 29 000 flood events occurred at more than 14 000 sites. Independently from the AVI archive, we have obtained other databases containing information on damage caused by mass movements and inundations, daily discharge measurements and solid-transport measurements at selected gauging stations, bibliographical and reference information on landslides and inundations, and a catalogue of National legislation on hydrological and geological hazards and risk in Italy. The databases are part of an information system known as SICI (an Italian acronym for Sistema Informativo sulle Catastrofi Idrogeologiche, Information System on Hydrological and Geomorphological Catastrophes), which is currently the largest single repository of historical information on landslides and floods in Italy. After an outline of the history and evolution of the AVI Project archive, we present and discuss: (a) the structure of the SICI information system, including the hardware and software solutions adopted to maintain, manage, update, use and disseminate the information stored in the various databases, (b) the type and amount of information stored in each database, including an estimate of their completeness, and (c) examples of recent applications of the information system, including a web-based GIS system to Correspondence to: F. Guzzetti ([email protected]) show the location of sites historically affected by landslides and floods, and an estimate of geo-hydrological (i.e. landslide and flood) risk in Italy based on the available historical information.