FLOOD SUSCEPTIBILITY in ENDORHEIC AREAS: The case study of Salento peninsula in Apulia (Italy)

The concept of “flood susceptibility” is generally used to identify the flood prone areas. The flood susceptibility defines the probability of a territory to be flooded, and generally is determined according to its geo-litho-morphological and climatic characteristics. Here, we assessed the flood susceptibility in the Apulia region (Southern Italy). This region is characterized by the presence of endorheic basins located in the Salento peninsula. During ordinary rainfall events, these endorheic basins collect all the runoff into karst sinkholes. On the contrary, during severe rainfall events, the runoff saturates the capacity of sinkholes and the further runoff overflows in the lowland. The aim of the work is to characterize properly the flood susceptibility in endorheic areas, which is not adequately investigated at our knowledge.