Type of Event: Flood (Flash flood);
Date/Time of Event (UTC): 2023-05-16 00:00:00;
Activation Date/Time (UTC): 2023-05-25 00:00:00;
Dedicated Mechanism: Copernicus EMS (RRM);
Affected Country: Italy;
Affected Area: Emilia Romagna, Italy;
Event Description:

Emilia Romagna region, Italy, has been hit by two severe flooding events within two weeks, starting from the first inundation occurred on 2^nd May 2023. On 16^th of May, a new intense meteorological disturbance hit the same areas, where the intense precipitations raised river levels in the southern-eastern area of Emilia-Romagna. Historic highs have been reached in some rivers. The rains promoted the movement of hundreds of landslides in areas of the south-central regional Apennines (Romagna Apennines) already affected by the recent event.

The emergency has been declared at national level and all components of the Italian Civil Protection System have been activated. In order to get ready to support the recovery phase, the Italian Civil Protection activated the CEMS Risk and Recovery Standard service, to get an estimation of the overall extension of the flooded areas.

• A hydraulic modelling approach has been adopted to provide the temporal analysis of the occurred flood event (P06 product) in terms of maximum flood extent, maximum water depth, and flood temporal evolution estimated during the period 16th May 2023 – 23rd May 2023. The model has been calibrated using the flood footprints retrieved from two Sentinel-1A images acquired on 22nd May 2023 (10816.3 ha) and on 23rd May 2023 (12898.9 ha), as well as the flood delineation products delivered in the framework of the EMSR664 activation.
• The maximum flood extent retrieved from the hydraulic modelling is 125174.3 ha in AOI01. The maximum water depth has been evaluated mostly within the range 0-5.5 m.
• The peak was observed on the 17th of May, with 125174.3 ha of flooded area.

Details, maps:
▸ [EMSN154] Flood in Emilia Romagna, Italy
Activation Feed (GeoRSS):
▸ http://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-components/EMSN154/feed