In recent decades, the number of natural disasters caused by weather events has increased with
great economic losses and a large number of deaths. For example, between 2002 and 2014
there were 293 deaths in Italy and in 2013 alone, a total of 351 landslide and flood events were
recorded [22].
This study has identified a specific risk index associated with each weather type, calibrated
for each Italian region and applicable to both annual and seasonal levels. The risk index represents
the seasonal and annual vulnerability of each Italian region and indicates that additional
preventive actions are necessary for some regions.
The result of this work represent a good starting point towards the development of a tool to
support policy-makers, local authorities and health agencies in planning actions, mainly in the
medium to long term, aimed at the reduction of disasters. Disasters reduction represents an
important issue of the World Meteorological Organization mission [36]. Actions to be taken
on the eve on an emergency will nevertheless still predominantly managed through the use of
deterministic models able to better locate the phenomena, but in the medium to long term
(months), theWT approach could instead make possible a better use of seasonal forecasts,
which, although in gradual improving, will unlikely be able to provide deterministic forecasts,
on the contrary could provide useful information on the prevailing WT. It is still necessary to
reiterate that the basis of a proper land policy remains the prevention to be made in the very
long term (years) taking into account the changing climate and the need to adapt infrastructures
and behaviors in order to prevent the occurrence of disasters. However, this index is in
the experimental stage and it doesn’t take into account the man made environmental change
(for example land use, overbuilding, river flow, etc). Further investigations are required concerning
the choice of "exposure and vulnerability layers" that could impact on the results.
WT-FLARI will be further tested and calibrated, specifically to consider a time lag during the
days immediately preceding the catastrophic event. It would also be interesting to investigate
the frequency of the events and how the weather types have changed over past decades.
Changes in weather patterns will be one of the principal effects of climate change and may also
give rise to a different frequency of extreme weather events.