Analysis of daily and monthly rainfall concentration in Southern Italy (Calabria region)

High percentages of the yearly total precipitation concentration in a few very rainy days can increase the risks of floods and soil instability. In this paper, an investigation of the spatial and temporal patterns of daily and monthly precipitation concentration in Calabria (Southern Italy) has been carried out by means of a homogenous daily precipitation data set. The results show that a very dishomogeneous temporal distribution of the daily rainfall characterizes the eastern side of the region with rain gauges in which one quarter of the rainiest days represents almost three quarters of the total pluviometric amount, and a western side which presents a more homogenous temporal distribution of the rainfall. Moreover, the application of the Mann Kendall test has shown a clear tendency toward a weaker seasonality of the rainfall distribution. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.