RIVER REHABILITATION FOR FLOOD PROTECTION: A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION (VOMANO RIVER’S MOUTH CASE STUDY, CENTRAL ITALY)

Rivers are highly sensitive to long-term and intensive human activities on their floodplains, which usually lead to fundamental transformations of fluvial morphology and changes in the character and intensity of flood events. In the last years it has been registered a growing interest at both strategic and operational levels amongst river managers in Europe in developing wetland rehabilitation schemes for flood risk mitigation and biodiversity protection. The paper illustrates a sustainable flood mitigation plan in urban context through destroyed floodplain rehabilitation, based on a geomorphic approach, for the Vomano River’s mouth, central Italy: an example on how the analysis of historical information can be a useful tool for identifying a preliminary guiding image for the rehabilitation process, to be then verified by means of hydraulic modeling.