WHY IT IS SO DIFFICULT TO ASSESS LANDSLIDES HAZARD AND RISK IN ROMANIA?

Abstract

Romania is situated in Europe, the first places in terms of the effect of the instability phenomena, we considered appropriate to deal with the subject. The idea of presenting this paper appeared after reading the article of C.J. van Westen et al., from 2005, concerning the difficulties encountered in assessing hazard and risk to landslide. In this article we try to illustrate the difficulties encountered in our attempt to develop landslide hazard maps at a regional scale. Thus, we present the difficulties arising in the inventory of this kind of phenomena, including information on the occurrence, type and volume of landslides, establishment of spatial and temporal probability of release, vulnerability assessment, etc. In light of the above, we illustrate the hazard maps developed by our team, presenting hence the problems we faced. The major issues to be solved, did not regard legislation, which is by far thick, but access to the necessary information to elaborate maps, according to the Methodological Norms in force, uncertainty about quality and accuracy of these information and the list may go on.