Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to propose a new set of environmental indicators for the fast estimation of landslide risk over very wide areas. Using Italy (301,340 km2) as a test case, landslide susceptibility maps and soil sealing/land consumption maps were combined to derive a spatially distributed indicator (LRI—landslide risk index), then an aggregation was performed using Italian municipalities as basic spatial units. Two indicators were defined, namely ALR (averaged landslide risk) and TLR (total landslide risk). All data were processed using GIS programs. Conceptually, landslide susceptibility maps account for landslide hazard while soil sealing maps account for the spatial distribution of anthropic elements exposed to risk (including buildings, infrastructure, and services). The indexes quantify how much the two issues overlap, producing a relevant risk and can be used to evaluate how each municipality has been prudent in planning sustainable urban growth to cope with landslide risk. The proposed indexes are indicators that are simple to understand, can be adapted to various contexts and at various scales, and could be periodically updated, with very low effort, making use of the products of ongoing governmental monitoring programs of Italian environment. Of course, the indicators represent an oversimplification of the complexity of landslide risk, but this is the first time that a landslide risk indicator has been defined in Italy at the national scale, starting from landslide susceptibility maps (although Italy is one of the European countries most affected by hydro-geological hazards) and, more in general, the first time that land consumption maps are integrated into a landslide risk assessment.
Highlights
Received: 7 May 2021Accepted: 8 June 2021Published: 9 June 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in Landslide risk is the possibility that a landslide occurs in a specific area and in a specific period of time, causing damages to population, buildings, infrastructure and services [1,2]
The indicators represent an oversimplification of the complexity of landslide risk, but this is the first time that a landslide risk indicator has been defined in Italy at the national scale, starting from landslide susceptibility maps ( Italy is one of the European countries most affected by hydro-geological hazards) and, more in general, the first time that land consumption maps are integrated into a landslide risk assessment
Afterwards, we show an application to the whole Italian territory, in which the Landslide Risk Index (LRI) is aggregated at the municipal level following two different approaches, generating two additional indexes that can be used to gain useful understanding on the interferences between geomorphological slope dynamics and urban expansion, which give birth to landslide risk
Summary
Received: 7 May 2021Accepted: 8 June 2021Published: 9 June 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in Landslide risk is the possibility that a landslide occurs in a specific area and in a specific period of time, causing damages to population, buildings, infrastructure and services [1,2]. Where R is the risk, H is the hazard (the probability for a dangerous event of a given intensity to happen in a certain place and time), V is the vulnerability (the degree of loss expected from the element impacted by the landslide) and E is exposition (the value of the elements exposed to the event). Following this approach, quantitative risk analyses have been mainly published for small areas or, at the most, in regional scale applications [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
