Citation

Guzzetti F, Carrara A, Cardinali M, Reichenbach P. Geomorphology (Amst) 1999; 31(1-4): 181-216.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0169-555X(99)00078-1

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In recent years, growing population and expansion of settlements and life-lines over hazardous areas have largely increased the impact of natural disasters both in industrialized and developing countries. Third world countries have difficulty meeting the high costs of controlling natural hazards through major engineering works and rational land-use planning. Industrialized societies are increasingly reluctant to invest money in structural measures that can reduce natural risks. Hence, the new issue is to implement warning systems and land utilization regulations aimed at minimizing the loss of lives and property without investing in long-term, costly projects of ground stabilization. Government and research institutions worldwide have long attempted to assess landslide hazard and risks and to portray its spatial distribution in maps. Several different methods for assessing landslide hazard were proposed or implemented. The reliability of these maps and the criteria behind these hazard evaluations are ill-formalized or poorly documented. Geomorphological information remains largely descriptive and subjective. It is, hence, somewhat unsuitable to engineers, policy-makers or developers when planning land resources and mitigating the effects of geological hazards. In the Umbria and Marche Regions of Central Italy, attempts at testing the proficiency and limitations of multivariate statistical techniques and of different methodologies for dividing the territory into suitable areas for landslide hazard assessment have been completed, or are in progress, at various scales. These experiments showed that, despite the operational and conceptual limitations, landslide hazard assessment may indeed constitute a suitable, cost-effective aid to land-use planning. Within this framework, engineering geomorphology may play a renewed role in assessing areas at high landslide hazard, and helping mitigate the associated risk.