Mass Wasting in Italy

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/26/1139276588/italy-ischia-landslide-casamicciola


Italy’s geology and geomorphology makes the country prone to natural disasters including landslides.  In fact, it ranks as the 52nd most disaster-prone country. (Source)  Climate change is exacerbating this issue.  Last year, researchers created an inventory of mass movements in the Italian Alps and found that 2022 saw the most mass movements to date, with a clear upward trend.  (The image above is from November 2022.) The inventory includes 779 mass movement events with 279 rockfalls and 191 mud/debris flows. (Source)  661 landslides resulting in 4105 deaths occurred in Italy between 1950 & 2015 and rainfall is usually the trigger. (Source).  The most notable landslide was the Vajont Dam disaster of 1963.  If you would like to learn more about this disaster, please watch this video.  Just in the past week, parts of Northern Italy, including Florence and Pisa are on high (red) alert because of torrential rains and flooding.. (Source)


In 2012, Italian scientists created a national warning system for rainfall-induced landslides named “SANF”.  This warning system is based on rainfall thresholds, sub-hourly rainfall measurements, and rainfall forecasts, which are used to predict where landslides are likely to occur in the next 24 hours.  For more information on this study, here is a link to the paper.  Recently, scientists have acknowledged that a gap exists between the design of an early warning system and the operation of one.  They created the Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS).  Five geographical LEWS are being managed in the country. (Source)  I found information on one such warning system (called LEWIS) in the Bari region.  Here is an example of a map for this monitoring:

 

https://www.irpi.cnr.it/en/project/landslide-early-warning-integrated-system/


Thanks for reading!

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