Thesis title: Cartographic and Functional Models for Drought Phenomena in Hydro-Agricultural Infrastructures of Landscape Assets System. The Case of the Landscape System West of the Sesia River
As early as the 1970s, there was a need to know how to deal with natural disasters, as attested by an increasing number of technical reports on the subject. This is now more pressing than ever due to the soaring frequency of events linked to climate change. In Italy, phenomena such as floods, storms, and earthquakes receive more scientific attention than drought. Drought is the result of causes that occur over centuries, decades, and annually, due to the interaction of the anthroposphere, biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere, a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. In Italy, drought is rapidly changing the Italian landscape assets linked to agricultural production. These landscapes are the result of the historical stratification of productive and social practices, as their signs are lost, so too is the memory, and therefore their value. The most advanced models today to describe this phenomenon and predict the most affected areas have resolutions at the continental or regional scale, and more rarely at the local scale. The final products are raster maps. The research aims to fill the gap in the tools that cartography and the analysis of geoinformation can offer in response to the question of how drought affects the agricultural landscape, through which vectors, which real objects are damaged, and which areas are most at risk. The case study is the Hydro-Agricultural System (HAS) of the plain in the province of Vercelli, a system resulting from the interrelation between technical infrastructures, geographic context, and legislative framework. At the methodological level, it involves the integration of two data models. The first uses the results of the methods produced by Functional Safety Assessment to study how drought leads to the failure of the HAS through a domino effect. It shows how drought spreads both from upstream to downstream and with feedback effects upstream. The most sensitive technical components are highlighted. The second model involves geospatial data that represents the outcomes of the first model in real-world objects. Through the construction of the data architecture, it is possible to query the geospatial model. The result is a set of maps illustrating the stress and impact of HAS components on agricultural production, nature, and rural heritage. The aim is to produce preparatory materials for a future Italian Drought Risk Map and tools for public and private actors who manage this landscape.