Assessing Human Vulnerability to Urban Flood in Southern Sardinia (IT)

The increasing frequency and magnitude of flood-related disasters has led to adopting advanced flood models to provide a better understanding of flood vulnerability, particularly for human lives. Human flood vulnerability assessment is a primary objective when planning and designing in urban areas. Results of a numerical model in the coastal hamlet of Solanas (Sardinia, IT), in terms of water velocity and depth, have been processed using the empirical method of the regional legislation (RAS), as suggested by the National Network for Environmental Protection. Vulnerability maps and statistical parameters were compared and benchmarked with the DEFRA method, which is largely used in the UK and is regarded as a state-of-the-art empirical approach. The main findings from the benchmark results between the DEFRA and RAS methods suggest that the applicability threshold of the RAS method can significantly underestimate the pedestrian vulnerability to urban flood in Solanas, and this paper suggests a preliminary step in improving that method could be a tentative threshold value of 0.10 m depth to assure a more realistic evaluation of human vulnerability in Solanas.