Attica susceptible to major floods

Major flash floods like those that hit western Attica in 2017, claiming 23 lives and destroying hundreds of properties, will be the rule and not the exception in coming years, according to a digital simulation model created by a team of experts at the University of Athens.

"We have seen a significant increase of flooding phenomena from 1980 onward in Attica," Dr Michalis Diakakis, of the university's Department of Geology and Geoenviromment and a member of the team researching extreme weather, told Kathimerini.

"The data we have show that the situation is very different and much more acute in the past decades compared with the evidence recorded in the period 1940-1980," he added.

The Athens University team combined historical data along with information regarding the area's natural landscape, creating a simulation of what could happen under different...