Small basins return
The PB (Small Basins) project aims to improve and integrate flood hazard—and consequently risk—assessment approaches in small mountainous catchments through the development of integrated monitoring and modelling approaches for hydrological, hydraulic, and geomorphological processes in these basins. The resulting guidelines will be compiled into a dedicated manual addressed to the authorities and stakeholders responsible for flood risk assessment and/or management.
ISPRA exercises national-level competences in the fields of hydrology and hydromorphology and has developed methods and approaches for the assessment of fluvial processes and the status of watercourses. These include the IDRAIM methodological framework, which supports analysis, post-monitoring assessment, and the definition of impact mitigation measures for the purposes of integrated planning as required by Directives 2000/60/EC and 2007/60/EC. IDRAIM therefore serves as a system supporting the management of watercourses and geomorphological processes.
ISPRA is also the competent authority pursuant to Article 3 of Directive 2007/60/EC (the Floods Directive) on the assessment and management of flood risk.
In this specific role as an interface between research and policy, ISPRA’s contribution to the project was to coordinate the drafting of the ‘Manual for the assessment of hazard and risk in mountainous catchments’, with particular reference to the definition of hazard and risk in accordance with the Floods Directive, Flood Risk Management Plans, and measures for mitigating hydraulic risk in small mountainous basins. In order to ensure that the technical and scientific guidance is fully understood by practitioners operating in the field, ISPRA’s activities also included verifying the consistency—both conceptual and terminological—of the proposed approaches with the requirements set out in the Floods Directive.
With regard to methodological content, ISPRA promoted the use and application of the Event Dynamics Classification (CDE) and the delineation of Event Mobility Corridors (FDE) provided for within the IDRAIM methodology. These tools are essential for defining the most likely event scenarios, taking into account future scenarios of precipitation as well as sediment and woody debris supply