This paper deals with the risk assessment to alluvial fan flooding at the piedmont zone of carbonate massifs of the southern Apennines chain (southern Italy). These areas are prime spots for urban development and are generally considered to be safer than the valley floors. As a result, villages and towns have been built on alluvial fans which, during intense storms, may be affected by flooding and/or debris flow processes. The study area is located at the foothills of the Maddalena mountains, an elongated NW-SE trending ridge which bounds to the east the wide intermontane basin of Vallo di Diano. The area comprises a wide detrital talus (bajada) made up by coalescent alluvial fans, ranging in age from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. Historical analysis was carried out to ascertain the state of activity of the fans and to identify and map the zones most hit by past flooding. According to the information gathered, the Sala Consilina fans would appear prone to debris flows; in the past these processes have produced extensive damage and loss of life in the urban area. The watershed basins feeding the fans have very low response times and may produce debris flow events with high magnitudes. Taking into account the historical damage, the fan surface morphology, and the present urban development (street orientation and hydraulic network), the piedmont area was zoned and various susceptibility classes were detected. These results may represent a useful tool for studies aiming at territorial hazard mapping and civil protection interventions.

The Quaternary evolution of the main coastal basins located along the southwestern margin of the Southern Apennines has been reconstructed by integrating the huge amount of existing stratigraphical and geomorphological data. The information produced in the last twenty years has shed new light on the recent (late Middle Pleistocene to Present) history of the Campanian and Sele plains or basins. During the early Quaternary, the analysed coastal basins originated as half-grabens in response to opening processes active since the late Tortonian in the southern Tyrrhenian back-arc basin. In some of these basins (e.g. the Campanian Plain), volcanism has also played an important role. In the inner sectors of the coastal basins, the complex interplay between block faulting, sedimentary inputs and glacioeustatic fluctuations gave rise to relative sea-level change and related coastline migrations, leading to the formation of the present-day coastal plains. In the Sele Plain basin, the construction of the present-day landscape mainly resulted from the substantial ceasing of subsidence in the final part of the Middle Pleistocene. Conversely, a strong contribution to the recent evolution of the Campanian Plain has been provided by abundant volcaniclastic aggradation, able to hinder the effect of the vertical motions that occurred in the last 100 ka.

This study presents an historical database of flash flood events in the Campania region of southern Italy. The study focuses on small catchments characterized by intermittent flow, generally occurring during and after heavy rainstorms, which can be hydrologically defined as small Mediterranean catchments. As the outlet zones of these catchments (consisting mainly of alluvial fans or fan deltas) are highly urbanized in Campania, the population living in the delivery areas is exposed to high risk. Detailed scrutiny and critical analysis of the existing literature, and of the data inventory available, allowed us to build a robust database consisting of about 500 events from 1540 to 2015, which is continuously updated. Since this study is the first step of a longer project to perform a hazard analysis, information about time and site of occurrence is known for all events. As for the hazard analysis envisaged, collecting information about past events could provide information on future events, in terms of damage and also spatial and temporal occurrence. After introducing the issue of flash floods in Italy we then describe the geological and geomorphological settings of the study area. The database is then presented, illustrating the methodology used in collecting information and its general structure. The collected data are then discussed and the statistical data analysis presented.

This Special Issue wants to outline the role of Geoheritage and Geotourism as potential touristic resources of a region. The term “Geoheritage” refers to a peculiar type of natural resources represented by sites of special geological significance, rarity or beauty that are representative of a region and of its geological history, events and processes. These sites are also known as “geosites” and, as well as archaeological, architectonic and historical ones, they can be considered as part of the cultural estate of a country. “Geotourism” is an emerging type of sustainable tourism, which concentrates on geosites, furnishing to visitors knowledge, environmental education and amusement. In this meaning, Geotourism may be very useful for geological Sciences divulgation and may furnish additional opportunities for the development of rural areas, generally not included among the main touristic attractions. The collected papers focused on these main topics with different methods and approaches and can be grouped as follows: (i) papers dealing with geosites promotion and valorisation in protected areas; (ii) papers dealing with geosites promotion and valorisation in non-protected areas; (iii) papers dealing with geosites promotion by exhibition, remote sensing analysis and apps; (iv) papers investigating geotourism and geoheritage from the tourists’ perspective.

Naples and its surroundings are a very young landscape, originated from 40 ka in response to strong and explosive volcanic processes, which created the Campi Flegrei, one of the largest volcanic fields of the world. Despite the repeated and continuous volcanic activity, this territory was selected for human settlements since Neolithic times and hosted some of the most important Greek and Roman towns in the Mediterranean area (e.g., Cuma, Parthenope, Neapolis, Baia and Puteoli). Geoarcheological data and historical chronicles testify to human coexistence with eruptions, bradyseismic ground motions, coastline changes, floods and landslides. With the aim of describing the geomorphological evolution of this area to a wide audience, including also non-experts, we constructed a synthetic geomorphological map of the area and sketches that synthesise the main stages of the geomorphological evolution of the historical centre of Naples and the coastal belt of the Gulf of Pozzuoli during the last millennia.