A fractal approach to sea-surge occurrences in the Northern Adriatic Sea

The underlying complex physical processes associated with the generation of sea-surges in Venice and in Trieste, located in the Northern Adriatic Sea, are found to be sufficiently scale invariant in respect of their magnitude-time patterns. This provides a rational basis (i) for the computation of the relative sea-surge risk normally underestimated when it is obtained through the classical exponential distributions and (ii) for the identification of fractal time clustering patterns not obtainable from a simple linear approach.