FLORERISK

Urban Areas are increasingly being hit by short duration heavy rainstorms (strong wind and heavy rainfall). Climate change projections suggest an increase in frequency of such events. The impacts are mainly tree failures, inundation of roads, injuries and people fatalities. Urban Green Infrastructures play a crucial role on the mitigation of Climate-change effects in Urban Areas (FAO, 2016), but at the same they must not represent a weak point against natural hazards. In many cases, municipalities adopt short-term policies, causing a deforestation of Urban Forests, strongly affecting the biodiversity and ecological value of these precious areas.

The research project FLORERISK, is a part of a wider project called STREAMING (STRategiE di mitigazione e gestione dei rischi AMbientalI: casi di studio Nel territorio reGionale Toscano), financed by Regione Toscana in the framework of a POR-FSE European project. It aims to increase the resilience of urban areas against extreme events by implementing adaptive strategies focused on Risk Assessment. Analyses on wind and rain effects at the state of the art are firstly performed in order to implement the adaptation strategy on the field, also by involving the population. Risk maps on wind-induced tree failures will be created for the municipalities involved. The project will be finally implemented on a case study of the city of Florence. The project is also compliant with Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction and the EU policies for flood risk management and climate adaptation. .