Abstract
During recent years, the availability of innovative monitoring instrumentation has been a fundamental component in the development of efficient and reliable early warning systems (EWS). In fact, the potential to achieve high sampling frequencies, together with automatic data transmission and elaboration are key features for a near-real time approach. This paper presents a case study located in Central Italy, where the realization of an important state route required a series of preliminary surveys. The monitoring system installed on site included manual inclinometers, automatic modular underground monitoring system (MUMS) inclinometers, piezometers, and geognostic surveys. In particular, data recorded by innovative instrumentation allowed for the detection of major slope displacements that ultimately led to the landslide collapse. The implementation of advanced tools, featuring remote and automatic procedures for data sampling and elaboration, played a key role in the critical event identification and prediction. In fact, thanks to displacement data recorded by the MUMS inclinometer, it was possible to forecast the slope failure that was later confirmed during the following site inspection. Additionally, a numerical analysis was performed to better understand the mechanical behavior of the slope, back-analyze the monitored event, and to assess the stability conditions of the area of interest.
Highlights
Within the landslides risk management framework, early warning systems (EWS) represent a relevant option, especially when structural measures are not able to fully guarantee the safety of areas interested by instability phenomena
According to another definition provided by UN-ISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction), early warning systems should be designed to “empower individuals and communities threatened by hazards to act in sufficient time and in an appropriate manner to reduce the possibility of personal injury, loss of life and damage to property and the environment” [3]
The case study presented in this paper is the monitoring of a landslide that persists on the construction site of a state road connecting the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas, through Abruzzo and Molise regions (Figure 1)
Summary
Within the landslides risk management framework, early warning systems (EWS) represent a relevant option, especially when structural measures are not able to fully guarantee the safety of areas interested by instability phenomena. As defined by Medina-Cetina and Nadim, early warning systems are “monitoring devices designed to avoid, or at least to minimize, the impact imposed by a threat on humans, damage to property, the environment, or/and to more basic elements like livelihoods” [2] According to another definition provided by UN-ISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction), early warning systems should be designed to “empower individuals and communities threatened by hazards to act in sufficient time and in an appropriate manner to reduce the possibility of personal injury, loss of life and damage to property and the environment” [3]. These actions can be summarized as follows: Geosciences 2019, 9, 62; doi:10.3390/geosciences9020062 www.mdpi.com/journal/geosciences
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