Geophysical Reserch Letter just published a paper written by our research group which I believe it is extremely important to contribute to resolve the problem of the severe floods that are hitting Italy.

The idea is to use advanced information, nightlight data in this case, to identify flood prone areas. Of course nightlights alone are not a sufficient information, but they have been provide to provide a valuable indication. Research activity will be carried out to identify complementary information, like digital elevation models and land-use data, to refine the vulnerability assessment. We are convinced that the potential for the use of these methods is very relevant.

The paper, published here,, already received significant visibility. The American Geophysical Union dedicated a blog to it. The on-line journal Wired dedicate the Science Graphic of the Week to the paper. Finally, Unibo Magazine (in Italian) dedicated an article to this research.

Thanks a lot to Francesco Laio for providing this idea, and Serena Ceola carrying out the work with dedication and rigor

Alberto