Relationships between Morphostructural/Geological Framework and Landslide Types: Historical Landslides in the Hilly Piedmont Area of Abruzzo Region (Central Italy)

Gianluca Esposito,Cristiano Carabella,Giorgio Paglia,Enrico Miccadei

doi:10.3390/land10030287

Gianluca Esposito, Cristiano Carabella + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/land10030287

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Journal: Land	Publication Date: Mar 11, 2021
Citations: 13	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Chieti-Pescara

Abstract

Landslides are a widespread natural phenomenon that play an important role in landscape evolution and are responsible for several casualties and damages. The Abruzzo Region (Central Italy) is largely affected by different types of landslides from mountainous to coastal areas. In particular, the hilly piedmont area is characterized by active geomorphological processes, mostly represented by slope instabilities related to mechanisms and factors that control their evolution in different physiographic and geological–structural conditions. This paper focuses on the detailed analysis of three selected case studies to highlight the multitemporal geomorphological evolution of landslide phenomena. An analysis of historical landslides was performed through an integrated approach combining literature data and landslide inventory analysis, relationships between landslide types and lithological units, detailed photogeological analysis, and geomorphological field mapping. This analysis highlights the role of morphostructural features on landslide occurrence and distribution and their interplay with the geomorphological evolution. This work gives a contribution to the location, abundance, activity, and frequency of landslides for the understanding of the spatial interrelationship of landslide types, morphostructural setting, and climate regime in the study area. Finally, it represents a scientific tool in geomorphological studies for landslide hazard assessment at different spatial scales, readily available to interested stakeholders to support sustainable territorial planning.

Highlights

Landslides are considered, worldwide and in Italy, as one of the most important and frequent natural hazards [1,2,3,4,5] as their occurrence can directly impact humans, infrastructures, economic activities, and the social and environmental systems [6,7,8]
This paper presents detailed analyses of the occurrence and distribution of landslides over the hilly piedmont area of Abruzzo Region (Central Italy) in relation to mechanisms and factors that control their evolution in different orographic, lithological, and geological
The work focuses on three landslide case studies that have undergone several main movements since the 18th century onwards, intending to highlight the multitemporal geomorphological evolution of phenomena and the interplay between morphostructural/geological framework and landslide dynamics

Summary

Introduction

Landslides are considered, worldwide and in Italy, as one of the most important and frequent natural hazards [1,2,3,4,5] as their occurrence can directly impact humans, infrastructures, economic activities, and the social and environmental systems [6,7,8]. Landslides are a landscape modelling process inducing geomorphological changes on slopes in mountainous, hilly, and coastal areas. Their occurrence is generally controlled by predisposing factors (i.e., morphology, lithological and structural setting, vegetation cover, land use, climate, etc.) and triggering ones (e.g., heavy rainfall and snowfall events, snow melting, earthquakes, wildfires, human activity, etc.) [9,10,11,12,13]. The type, extent, magnitude, and direction of the geomorphological processes and the location, abundance, activity, and frequency of landslides in a changing environment are still under debate. Most of the current landslides in the Central Apennines are the reactivation by pre-existing ones, which have occurred in periods of climatic and geomorphological conditions different from those of the present

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