Nature, Men and Natural Disasters: The Nola Floods of the Early Nineteenth Century

Journal title SOCIETÀ E STORIA
Author/s Walter Palmieri
Publishing Year 2010 Issue 2009/126
Language Italian Pages 19 P. 615-633 File size 1110 KB
DOI 10.3280/SS2009-126002
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Nature, Men and Natural Disasters: The Nola Floods of the Early Nineteenth Century - In spite of the relevance of historical data for present-day policies of prevention and reduction of hydrogeological risk, historians have rarely dealt with this theme; although following the Sarno catastrophe of 1998 there was a short-lived production of historical studies on landslides and floods in that area. Starting from this consideration, the author, after dwelling on the natural causes that made (and make) the Campanian plain especially prone to landslides and floods, reconstructs what happened in the Nola plain in the 1820s. A violent eruption of Vesuvius in 1822 enormously aggravated the already high hydrogeological instability of the area, provoking many catastrophic events during the following years. The author devotes special attention to human interference - determined by impulses that were economic in nature - which added itself to natural agents and made versant instability even worse. The author also employs archi- ve sources to analyze actions undertaken by the institutions of the time to attempt to contain these phenomena

Keywords: Nineteenth century, catastrophes, environmental history, Nola, Vesuvius, hydrogeological instability

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Walter Palmieri, Natura, uomini e dissesti: le alluvioni di Nola agli inizi dell’ottocento in "SOCIETÀ E STORIA " 126/2009, pp 615-633, DOI: 10.3280/SS2009-126002