TY - JOUR A1 - Roder, Giulia A1 - Hudson, Paul A1 - Taroili, Paolo T1 - Flood risk perceptions and the willingness to pay for flood insurance in the Veneto region of Italy JF - International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction N2 - The floodplain of the Veneto region (north-east Italy) is one of the most inhabited and economically competitive urban landscapes in Europe. Moreover, recent flood events have caused millions of Euros in damage across the region. Due to the combined influence of climate change and socio-economic development, flood impacts are expected to grow. Therefore, it is important for all flood-prone individuals to actively manage and limit flood risk through property-level flood risk management as part of an integrated flood risk management strategy. This is in line with the calls for wider community engagement in risk management in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, an online-survey of Veneto region residents was conducted asking questions regarding flood risk perceptions, preparedness, and preferences towards flood insurance via self-stated willingness to pay (WTP). Our analysis provides an initial indication that while flood risk knowledge is high, it may not be sufficient to encourage proactive risk management. From the WTP values provided people seem reluctant to buy insurance. However, many respondents expressed that a compulsory insurance system may be acceptable. In such a scheme the estimated insurance premium could fall to between (sic)26 and (sic)42 per year, as compared to, potentially, (sic)800 under risk-based premiums, which falls within the majority of WTP estimates provided ((sic)0-(sic)250). Overall, we identify areas of future research that are critical for the better design of risk management policies, supporting the insurance companies in risk management and for recommendations regarding property-level risk management. KW - Flood risk KW - Risk perception KW - Preparedness KW - Willingness to pay KW - Italy Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101172 SN - 2212-4209 VL - 37 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maerker, Michael A1 - Pelacani, Samanta A1 - Schroeder, Boris T1 - A functional entity approach to predict soil erosion processes in a small Plio-Pleistocene Mediterranean catchment in Northern Chianti, Italy JF - Geomorphology : an international journal on pure and applied geomorphology N2 - In this paper we evaluate different methods to predict soil erosion processes. We derived different layers of predictor variables for the study area in the Northern Chianti, Italy, describing the soil-lithologic complex, land use, and topographic characteristics. For a subcatchment of the Orme River, we mapped erosion processes by interpreting aerial photographs and field observations. These were classified as erosional response units (ERU), i.e. spatial areas of homogeneous erosion processes. The ERU were used as the response variable in the soil erosion modelling process. We applied two models i) bootstrap aggregation (Random Forest: RF), and ii) stochastic gradient boosting (TreeNet: TN) to predict the potential spatial distribution of erosion processes for the entire Orme River catchment. The models are statistically evaluated using training data and a set of performance parameters such as the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), Cohen's Kappa, and pseudo R2. Variable importance and response curves provide further insight into controlling factors of erosion. Both models provided good performance in terms of classification and calibration; however, TN outperformed RF. Similar classes such as active and inactive landslides can be discriminated and well interpreted by considering response curves and relative variable importance. The spatial distribution of the predicted erosion susceptibilities generally follows topographic constraints and is similar for both models. Hence, the model-based delineation of ERU on the basis of soil and terrain information is a valuable tool in geomorphology; it provides insights into factors controlling erosion processes and may allow the extrapolation and prediction of erosion processes in unsurveyed areas. KW - Erosion processes KW - Boostrap aggregation KW - Stochastic gradient boosting KW - Spatially explicit prediction KW - Tuscany KW - Italy Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2010.10.022 SN - 0169-555X VL - 125 IS - 4 SP - 530 EP - 540 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Föllmi, Karl B. A1 - Hofmann, Helene A1 - Chiaradia, Massimo A1 - de Kaenel, Eric A1 - Frijia, Gianluca A1 - Parente, Mariano T1 - Miocene phosphate-rich sediments in Salento (southern Italy) JF - Sedimentary geology : international journal of applied and regional sedimentology N2 - The upper Middle to lower Upper Miocene (Serravallian to Tortonian) sedimentary succession in Salento (southern Italy) includes glauconite- and phosphate-rich deposits, which are associated with pelagic micrite. In Baia del Ciolo and Marittima (southern Salento), the succession is composed of shallow-water platform carbonates of Late Oligocene age (Chattian; Porto Badisco Formation), which are overlain by a 20- to 30-cm-thick level of glauconite-rich micrite with abundant reworked particles and fossils of the underlying Porto Badisco Formation. This interval is in turn covered by an up to 15 cm thick phosphatic crust ("Livello ad Aturia"), which itself is overlain either by a hemipelagic chalk-like carbonate of Middle to Late Miocene age ("Pietra Leccese"; Marittima) or directly by a micrite of Late Miocene age (Messinian; Novaglie Formation; Baia del Ciolo), which shallows upwards into a shallow-water platform carbonate. A large hiatus is present in this succession, which likely includes the Lower and lower Middle Miocene. In the region of Lecce, two discrete levels enriched in glauconite and phosphate-each associated with a major discontinuity-occur within the Pietra Leccese. The strontium-isotope ages derived on phosphate nodules and phosphatized and non-phosphatized fossils and calcareous nannofossil ages indicate a time interval of phosphogenesis between 13.5 and 7.5 Ma, with two clusters at 12 and 10.5 Ma. The glauconite and phosphate-rich sediments resulted from a current-dominated regime, which was characterized by low overall sedimentation rates, erosion and sediment reworking, and authigenesis. This regime was likely related to a generally westward-directed bottom current, which was forced to upwell once it arrived at the western border of the eastern Mediterranean basin. The timing of the principal phosphogenic phases can only partly be correlated to those of other occurrences in this part of the Mediterranean (Malta, Gozo, southern Sicily, Matese, Latium-Abruzzi platform). The partial diachrony in phosphogenesis may express the effect of lateral switching in and/or focusing of upwelling zones. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Miocene KW - Salento KW - Italy KW - Phosphogenesis KW - Paleoceanography Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2015.07.009 SN - 0037-0738 SN - 1879-0968 VL - 327 SP - 55 EP - 71 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -