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Floods often cause significant damage to transportation infrastructure such as roads, railways, and bridges. This study identifies several topographic, environmental, and hydrological factors (slope, elevation, rainfall, land use and cover, distance from rivers, geology, topographic wetness index, and drainage density) influencing the safety of the railway infrastructure and uses multi-criteria analysis (MCA) alongside an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to produce flood susceptibility maps within a geographic information system (GIS). The proposed methodology was applied to the catchment area of a railway track in southern Italy that was heavily affected by a destructive flood that occurred in the autumn of 2015. Two susceptibility maps were obtained, one based on static geophysical factors and another including triggering rainfall (dynamic). The results showed that large portions of the railway line are in a very highly susceptible zone. The flood susceptibility maps were found to be in good agreement with the post-disaster flood-induced infrastructural damage recorded along the railway, whilst the official inundation maps from competent authorities fail to supply information about flooding occurring along secondary tributaries and from direct rainfall. The reliable identification of sites susceptible to floods and damage may provide railway and environmental authorities with useful information for preparing disaster management action plans, risk analysis, and targeted infrastructure maintenance/monitoring programs, improving the resilience capacity of the railway network. The proposed approach may offer railway authorities a cost-effective strategy for rapidly screening flood susceptibility at regional/national levels and could also be applied to other types of linear transport infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a general context in which the effects of terrestrial overheating are increasingly evident, involving meteorological phenomena characterised by intense rain concentrated in increasingly shorter periods of time, the careless management of the territory by man and in particular of the waterways has led to sometimes unmanageable and disastrous consequences. Over time we have taken possession of spaces of the streams, we have confined them in narrow riverbeds, we cross them with bridges and road works that obstruct the natural flow of water during flood phases. The need for greater attention in terms of prevention is therefore evident, through which to affirm the culture of respect for water resources, the safety of the community and, as regards existing infrastructural works, the need to promote a more in-depth knowledge of the phenomena that concern them in such a way as to put in place adequate action plans with the aim of maintaining high safety standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]