Flood damage assessment and mapping within the MOVIDA project: a glance to expected impacts on roads and railway infrastructures

With the intent to be compliant with the European Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) duties, the Po River District Authority gathered the expertise of 20 Italian Universities and the Italian National Research Council (CNR) active on hydrology (including climate change effects), hydraulics and damage modelling. Within this research framework, the MOVIDA project is developed by a consortium dedicated to flood damage modelling (8 Universities and CNR) and intends to provide an Information System capable to perform an analytical evaluation and mapping of expected damage, overcoming the limitations of present maps where the evaluation of risk remains highly qualitative and subjective. Proper damage assessment tools were identified for all the five categories of exposed elements foreseen by the EU Directive: population, infrastructures, economic activities, environmental and cultural heritage, and na-tech sites. A dedicated Open Source Geographic Information System (i.e. QGIS plugin) was developed and transferred to Regional Authorities for flood damage evaluation and mapping to all areas at significant risk in the Po District.  
In particular, the methodology defined for road and railway infrastructures qualitatively estimates the potential damage impacts of a flood event for those infrastructures. Different impact classes (High, Medium, Low and Null) are assigned in relation to roads category (i.e., Highways, Main, Secondary, Service, Other) and railways type (high-speed train or not), taking into account both the importance of the infrastructure itself (as well as its topographic characteristics: e.g. tunnel, bridge, etc.) and the magnitude of the expected event (i.e., hazard). The results enable to spatially identify the extent of the impacted infrastructures, as to drive the evaluation of potential mitigation measures and to support the competent bodies in the organization of the rescue.