Abstract
ABSTRACTIn the autumn of 2014, a series of rainfall events affected several sectors of the Liguria region, triggering many shallow landslides and causing three casualties and severe structural damages. The most intensely unstable area covered 385 km2, in which more than 1600 landslides have been identified. After these events, an airborne Light Detection and Ranging survey was carried out. The survey yielded a high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM) and aerial images that provided a means of identifying and mapping all the occurred landslides. The distribution analysis of slope instabilities highlighted the link with various human activities. In fact, the majority of the detected landslides occurred in man-modified areas. Geospatial and statistical analyses provided the identification of three main anthropic factors: terraces, their level of maintenance and road network. Moreover, they quantified their role in landslide triggering. These factors were not analysed as separate elements, but as a continuous process, overlapping in time, in man-made influence on landscape. The identification of such factors is a key element for a correct behaviour characterization of this landscape towards extreme flash floods events.
Highlights
In the past centuries, human intervention has caused remarkable changes in hilly and mountain landscapes (Remondo et al 2005; Garcıa-Ruiz 2010)
Many authors analysed the influence of land use setting on rainfall-induced landslides occurrence during intense rainfall event in Liguria region (Cevasco et al 2013, 2014; Galve et al 2015; Brandolini et al 2017)
Considering the land use classes adopted in the statistical analysis, ‘Agricultural areas’ (20% –30% of the land use of the entire analysed territory) are the most affected areas by shallow landslides than the forested and scrubland ones
Summary
Human intervention has caused remarkable changes in hilly and mountain landscapes (Remondo et al 2005; Garcıa-Ruiz 2010). The acknowledgments of the human effect were achieved already in the Middle Ages, when anthropic terraces have been principally employed for cultivation (Canuti et al 2004; Cevasco et al 2014; Tarolli et al 2014). The employment of such structures was prolonged over time, recording an overlapping with the accelerating rate of human intervention during the following century, principally represented by urban areas and road network development. The current landscape setting offers the opportunity to observe a long-term land use
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