The use of scenarios to evaluate the tsunami impact in southern Italy

This paper outlines the main contributions to the definition and evaluation of tsunami hazard and risk resulting from studies undertaken in Italy in recent years and emphasises that adopting characteristic cases or scenarios is a very useful and advantageous technique. Three main cases are given as valuable examples, that is the 1627 Gargano tsunami, the 1693 eastern Sicily tsunami and the 1908 Messina Straits tsunami, since: (1) they characterise three distinct tsunamigenic regions; (2) they are instances of destructive events; and (3) they have been extensively studied in the last decade. The paper elucidates the state-of-the-art of the research on these events, clarifies the chief points of agreement and disagreement among scientists, and illustrates the main issues that are to be addressed by future research to provide reliable assessment of tsunami risk and to implement efficient countermeasures to defend the life of people, coastal structures and the coastal environment against the attacks of tsunamis. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.