Between September the 10th and 11th 2023, the heavy rainfall brought over North Africa by the storm Daniel triggered the failure of two dams in Northeastern Libya, resulting in the accelerated discharge of 30 million m3 of water and debris. The flood destroyed a large part of the city of Derna and caused more than 10000 fatalities and the displacement of thousands of people from their homes. Here, we present the geomorphological interpretation of the effects of such calamitous event whose effects were increased by the Derna urban sprawl occurred in the last century. Our geomorphological assessment is based on the analyses of old cartographic sources, allowing the reconstruction of the evolution of the settlement of Derna, and highresolution remote-sensing data. The latter permitted to assess the general settings of the local drainage system and the geomorphological effects of the event, also quantifying the volume of transported sediments through DEM of Difference analysis. Our analysis suggests that the effect of the flood was strictly connected to the urban sprawl and the destruction mainly affected the more recent areas of urban expansion.

The Derna dam collapse erased a century of urban sprawl / R.S. Azzoni, L. Forti, A. Pezzotta, A. Zerboni - In: Geology for a sustainable management of our Planet[s.l] : Società Geologica Italiana, 2024. - pp. 422-422 (( convegno Congresso SGI-SIMP tenutosi a Bari nel 2024.

The Derna dam collapse erased a century of urban sprawl

R.S. Azzoni
;
L. Forti;A. Pezzotta;A. Zerboni
2024

Abstract

Between September the 10th and 11th 2023, the heavy rainfall brought over North Africa by the storm Daniel triggered the failure of two dams in Northeastern Libya, resulting in the accelerated discharge of 30 million m3 of water and debris. The flood destroyed a large part of the city of Derna and caused more than 10000 fatalities and the displacement of thousands of people from their homes. Here, we present the geomorphological interpretation of the effects of such calamitous event whose effects were increased by the Derna urban sprawl occurred in the last century. Our geomorphological assessment is based on the analyses of old cartographic sources, allowing the reconstruction of the evolution of the settlement of Derna, and highresolution remote-sensing data. The latter permitted to assess the general settings of the local drainage system and the geomorphological effects of the event, also quantifying the volume of transported sediments through DEM of Difference analysis. Our analysis suggests that the effect of the flood was strictly connected to the urban sprawl and the destruction mainly affected the more recent areas of urban expansion.
Settore GEOS-03/A - Geografia fisica e geomorfologia
2024
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1114349
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