Abstract
Periods characterized by heavy rain and storms can trigger Multiple Damaging Hydrological Events (MDHE), in turn developing flooding, erosion, downpours and other phenomena affecting human habitats and ecosystems. However, approaches and applications to model MDHE and weather warning under specific environmental conditions are still poor. Based on the interpretation of the rainstorm—MDHE relationship, it was reconsidered and extended to a model‐based rainstorms hazard index (RHI) developed in a previous paper, where rainstorm‐pulsing force and resistance state are combined. In this way, landscape response was achieved by individual formative rainfall events, while the specific sequence of events that can affect landscape was only assessed in a qualitative way. A retrospective evaluation of rainstorm hazard modelling, control runs, are also given for different precipitation durations (from 1 to 240 h), to be compared with MDHE at two test‐sites of Southern Italy (Benevento, Campania region; Scilla, Calabria region). For these sites, the complete series of historical MDHE which occurred during a 10 year period (1997–2008) was gathered and used to validate the results of the rainfall model. The tool is relatively simple and potentially attractive to rapidly prediction of adverse consequences of rainstorms. Perspectives for real‐time applications in emergency planning are ultimately given for an agenda in future research. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society