Majella National Park is located in the central Apennines (Italy), in a vast mountainous area of about 740 km 2. Owing to the complex geological history of the Majella Massif and surrounding areas, it features many different landforms. Woodlands rich in water characterize the wide tectonic depression of Caramanico, which separates the rounded gentle profile of the Majella to the east from the impervious steep slope of the Morrone Mt. to the west. Bare pitted highlands, like lunar landforms, characterize the top of the Majella (i.e., Femmina Morta Valley) shaped by flowing ice that long ago covered the higher parts of the massif. Sedimentary structures and fossil content recovered in carbonates attest to a long period of sedimentation in warm, shallow-marine environments, revealing that the Majella and the surrounding carbonate mountains looked, approximately from 140 to 7 Ma, like the present-day Bahamas and Persian Gulf. The Park hosts at least 95 geosites, some of which (22) are well-known in the international literature because of their scientific relevance. In addition, its natural and cultural wealth, deeply fused together with geoheritage, preserves several features of national and world rarity. Therefore, the Park Authority decided to put forward its territory as a candidate to become part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Geoparks Network.

<p>Italy is one of the countries most exposed to hydrogeological risk in Europe. From the hydrological point of view, alluvial phenomena and rainfall-induced landslides have a common origin, since both of them are caused by intense surface runoff causing slope instability or water overflow in the drainage network. In particular, the territory of central Italy has a complex orography, where heterogeneous basins with different areas co-exist. Vast basins such as that of the Tiber, are found in geographical areas contiguous to minor hydrographic basins, which are mainly located along the eastern slope of the Apennines. Due to this complexity of the landscape, the territorial response to precipitation can be different and alluvial phenomena can be the result of different processes, with the precipitation as a common denominator. Floods or flash floods, but also rainfall-triggered landslides represent the main effects at the ground, due to intense or persistent rains. In general, river floods are considered more predictable than flash floods, since the latter are linked to very localized rain events, concentrated over a short period of time. The predictability of landslides is associated with attentive monitoring, based on the definition of rainfall thresholds.In this work, the hydrological model developed by Cetemps (CHyM) is applied for the simulation and detection of areas subjected to hydrological stress of a large geographical domain, which includes all of Central Italy, during diverse severe weather event impacting Central Italy in the recent years. We propose the validation of three different stress indices on a geographical area of ​​about 65 500 km2, including basins of very different sizes and characterized by heterogeneous substrates. The main purpose is to present a unique tool for the forecast on a regional scale of hydrogeological stresses induced by precipitation. The identification of stress conditions is given through the use of indices, able to detect areas affected by floods, flash floods and landslides, also providing a key to discriminate and classify these three different phenomena.</p>

<p>Hydrogeological hazard and its related risk prediction is becoming increasingly important in the context of climate change. Since extreme meteorological events, such as drought and intense rainfall, are expected to increase, the continuous update of the Early Warning Systems (EWSs) is particularly challenging, in the context of Civil Protection activities.  The new regulations concerning the organization of the Civil Protection distributed Service strongly reiterates the role of the collaboration with the scientific community, in order to ensure the EWS adaptation to deal with environmental changes. Scientists are called to convert up-do-date research findings to products available to end-users. On the other hand, civil protection should encourage scientific collaborations, with the aim of providing useful and user-friendly instruments to its operators, to increase the effectiveness of risk prediction and early intervention. In this context, the World Meteorological Organization recommends as sample products should be readily available for potential customers. From this conception, the rainfall-triggered landslides prediction system presented in this work was set-up by the Centre of Excellence CETEMPS for the Abruzzo Region Civil Protection institutional activities. The landslides forecasting system is based on the use of the Cetemps Hydrological Model (CHyM), coupled with different meteorological observations (gauges network, weather radar or satellites) and forecasts from limited area models. The landslide hazard is then given at hourly basis over the whole region, as well as, selected areas at risk, though the use of a stress index based on different thresholds.</p>