Hazards In Mountainous Areas Research Articles

Analysis of dynamic response and impact resistance of corrugated plate-reinforced concrete under simulated rockfall

In this study, corrugated plate material is used as the internal mold for the reinforced concrete structure, proposing a combined shelter structure designed to protect against rockfall hazards in mountainous areas. The research focuses on the impact of low-velocity rockfall (below 150 km/h) directly hitting both the reinforced concrete structure and the corrugated plate and reinforced concrete combined shelter structure. The accuracy of the numerical simulation results is validated through comparative analysis with indoor model experiments. Further investigation reveals the impact resistance and failure characteristics of RC (Reinforced Concrete) structures, CPRC(D) (Corrugated plate double-layer reinforced concrete composite structure) structures and CPRC(S)（Corrugated plate single-layer reinforced concrete composite structure）, with the residual resistance index (RRI) introduced for the quantitative analysis of the residual load-bearing capacity of the protective structures post-impact. The results indicate that the shape of impact craters and the maximum impact force obtained through numerical simulations closely match the experimental findings, demonstrating the validity of the simulation parameters. Under the same impact energy, the maximum peak stress at various points in the CPRC structure is reduced by more than 50 % compared to the RC structure. Damage to the RC structure under rockfall impact is primarily characterized by central penetration failure and extensive development of diagonal cracks. In contrast, the CPRC structure effectively suppresses penetration, dent deformation, and crack propagation, significantly reducing the volume of concrete damage and the proportion of rebar damage, with the residual resistance index consistently remaining above 0.27.The corrugated plate and reinforced concrete combined structure outperforms the reinforced concrete structure in several impact resistance factors, including maximum impact force, effective stress extremes, structural damage, and penetration depth. Additionally, after reinforcement with corrugated plates, the CPRC structure maintains a high level of impact resistance in most scenarios, even when the lower layer of rebar is eliminated, providing a theoretical basis and preliminary feasibility proof for the lightweight modification of the structure.

Open gridded climate datasets can help investigating the relation between meteorological anomalies and geomorphic hazards in mountainous areas

The initiation of geomorphic hazards in mountainous environments is highly susceptible to temperature and precipitation forcing. To assess future changes in these hazards, statistical methods linking meteorological anomalies with the occurrence of past hazards can be employed. These methods are currently trained using long records from in-situ meteorological stations. This requires large efforts for data access, collection and homogenisation, which severely limit the scalability of these approaches. Here, we use a consolidated statistical method and a vast catalogue of geomorphic hazards occurred across the Alpine range to show that open-access datasets of gridded temperature and satellite-based precipitation estimates can be used as surrogates of in-situ observations. Further, we find that satellite data can capture precipitation anomalies leading to debris flows that are missed by in-situ observations.

WILDFIRE RISKS IN THE SOUTHWEST OF KY SON DISTRICT, NGHE AN PROVINCE – A MULTI-CRITICAL MODEL

Wildfires are considered one of the most common hazards in mountainous areas, posing a serious threat to flora, fauna, and humans. This article focuses on building a forest fire risk map based on GIS techniques in the southwest area of Ky Son district, Nghe An province. The selected factors to create the forest fire risk map include 9 indices: NDDI drought index, surface temperature, slope, elevation, distance to roads, distance to rivers and streams, distance to upland fields, distance to residential areas, and aspect. The results of determining the weights of these factors using the AHP hierarchical analysis technique show that drought and surface temperature are the two factors that have the greatest influence on the forest fire risk index. The limit values that lead to forest fire risks for the drought criterion are 0.2 - 0.4 mm and for the surface temperature criterion are 25 - 30°C.The area with high fire risk accounts for the largest proportion, 38%, covering an area of 24,519.78 ha, followed by the average fire risk with 21,012.48 ha, accounting for 33% of the entire study area. The area with extremely high fire risk occupies the smallest area, 1,283.76 ha (2%). While controlling wildfires is challenging, forest fire risk maps can detect areas with higher risk and mitigate them. Therefore, creating forest fire risk maps for the identified areas is necessary.

Evaluating the dynamic response and failure process of a rock slope under pulse-like ground motions

Earthquake-induced landslides represent a significant proportion of seismic hazards in mountainous areas. Numerous slope stability analysis methods exist; however, only a few consider the interactions between pulselike seismic waves and landslides. This study investigates the seismic response characteristics of a homogenous step-like slope to evaluate the acceleration ground motion amplification along the surface. Parametric analysis focusing on the effect of pulselike waves on the slope is conducted using the finite difference modeling code Flac 3 D. Based on the numerical simulation results, pulselike seismic waves greatly influence the acceleration and velocity amplification factor (MPGA & MPGV), with maximum amplification usually obtained at the slope’s crest, where sliding failure initiates. The MPGV of rock slope under pulselike seismic waves is 9.3% higher than near-fault non-pulselike and 16% higher than the far-fault. The displacement for pulselike seismic waves is 20% higher than non-pulselike waves. The dynamic failure analysis presented deep failure for the slope under pulselike seismic wave compared to the non-pulselike. The dynamic failure calculated using Flac 3 D agrees with the results of Newmark-type displacement, with a marginal error between 1 and 8%. The study’s findings can be factored into reinforcing seismic engineering design and probabilistic stability analysis.

The development characteristics and mechanisms of the Xigou debris flow in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region

Debris flow is a common geological hazard in mountainous areas of China, often causing secondary disasters and seriously threatening residents and infrastructure. This paper uses the Xigou debris flow in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region (TGRR) as an example case study, the development characteristics and initiation pattern of which were analyzed based on field investigation. The disaster dynamics software DAN-W was then used to simulate the entire initiation-movement-accumulation process of the debris flow and conduct the debris flow dynamics analysis. The paper also simulated and predicted the movements of landslides in the formation area of a debris flow after its initiation. The results show that the movement duration of the Xigou debris flow was approximately 40 s, the maximum velocity was 37.1 m/s, the maximum thickness of the accumulation was 18.7 m, and the farthest movement distance was 930 m, which are consistent with the field investigation. When the volumes of landslide transformed into a new source material of debris flow are 5 × 104, 10 × 104, 15 × 104, 20 × 104, and 26 × 104 m3, the movement distances of the debris flows are 250, 280, 300, 340, and 375 m, respectively. When the volume of the source material exceeds 20 × 104 m3, debris flow movement can seriously impact the residential houses at the entrance of the gully. This paper can provide a scientific basis for the prevention and mitigation of the Xigou debris flow.

When instrument location makes the difference on rainfall thresholds definition: Lessons learned at Cancia, Dolomites

Since debris flows represent one of the most dangerous natural hazard in mountain areas, Early Warning Systems (EWSs) play a crucial role in reducing the risk of these hazardous processes. Robust event pre-alert usually relies on long time series of local rainfall measures. Oftentimes regional rain gauge networks present an insufficient spatial density to grasp the highly variable spatio-temporal dynamics of debris-flow triggering events and thus relying on such networks for developing rainfall thresholds might lead to relatively low rainfall estimates. The present paper reports the development of operational rainfall thresholds for the Cancia EWS, Dolomites (NE Italy). The instrumentation configuration led to the derivation and implementation of a set of rainfall thresholds that significantly enhanced pre-alarm reliability thanks to an optimal spatial distribution of multiple rain gauges within the catchment. Notwithstanding the small number of debris flows occurred during the calibration period, rainfall thresholds were derived considering the whole population of rainfall events showcasing the statistical properties of those events that led to debris-flow initiation. Finally, the validation period served as proof of work for the proposed thresholds with no raised false alarms and with the identification of few minor, but correctly detected, debris flows.

Deep Learning for Landslide Detection and Segmentation in High-Resolution Optical Images along the Sichuan-Tibet Transportation Corridor

Landslides pose a greater potential risk to the Sichuan-Tibet Transportation Project, and extensive landslide inventory and mapping are essential to prevent and control geological hazards along the Sichuan-Tibet Transportation Corridor (STTC). Recently proposed landslide detection methods mainly focused on new landslides with high vegetation. In addition, there are still challenges in automatic detection of old landslides using optical images. In this paper, two methods, namely mask region-based convolutional neural networks (Mask R-CNN) and transfer learning Mask R-CNN (TL-Mask R-CNN), are presented for detecting and segmenting new and old landslides, respectively. An optical remote sensing dataset for landslide recognition along the Sichuan-Tibet Transportation Corridor (LRSTTC) is constructed as an evaluation benchmark. Our experimental results show that the recall rate and F1-score of the proposed method for new landslide detection can reach 78.47% and 79.80%, respectively. Transfer learning is adopted to detect old landslides, and our experimental results show that evaluation indices can be further improved by about 10%. Furthermore, TL-Mask R-CNN has been applied to identify ice avalanches based on the characteristics of landslides. It appears that our proposed methods can detect and segment landslides effectively along the STTC with the constructed LRSTTC dataset, which is essential for studying and preventing landslide hazards in mountainous areas.

Inferring rockfall frequency-magnitude relationships and talus accumulation times from lichenometric study of talus deposits, Glenwood Canyon, CO, USA

Rockfall is a frequent hazard in mountainous areas of the world. Rockfall hazard assessment and mitigation design typically require design volumes of blocks and design frequencies of events. However, constraining the frequency of rockfall is challenging due to limited data, limited timespans of data collection, and difficulty of estimating dates for past rockfalls. This paper presents a study of rockfall frequency from natural rock slopes in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado using lichenometry measurements of Lecanora novomexicana and Lecidea atrobrunnea lichens from 1070 boulders from six talus deposits. The lichen ages are used to develop frequency-magnitude relationships for rockfall, to calculate recurrence intervals for selected volumes, and to estimate the time required to develop the observed talus deposits. Power laws fit to frequency-magnitude distributions of lichen ages yield b parameters ranging from −0.61 to −1.04. Based on these distributions, recurrence intervals for selected rockfall magnitudes include: sub-annual to annual for 0.1 m3, a few years to decades for 1 m3, and several decades for 10 m3 rockfalls. These estimated recurrence intervals appear to agree with observed signs of rockfall activity from the studied slopes and with rockfall data from the limited historical record for Glenwood Canyon. Mapped lichen ages indicate no preferential spatial distribution of rockfalls, implying the majority of rockfall events are small relative to the scale of the deposit. A comparison of the estimated volumetric rockfall accumulation rates with estimated total talus deposit volumes suggests that each of the studied deposits has a depositional history extending back longer than the beginning of the Holocene.

Three-dimensional fine model construction of instability in dangerous rock masses

Rock collapse is a common geological hazard in mountainous areas, and the prediction of the stability of dangerous rocks has always been a difficult problem in engineering practice. In this paper, a dangerous rock body in Ritu, Tibet, was scanned and measured using UAV tilt photography and 3D laser scanning technology, and the high-precision data collected by the UAV were processed and constructed into a 3D fine model, and the movement state of the dangerous rock body when it is destabilised was numerically simulated using Unity3D. In order to verify the simulation effect, a field test was conducted on a slope around Lhasa and the field test results were fitted to the numerical simulation results. By comparing the data obtained, the 3D modelling data of the high and steep slope collected by the UAV was more refined and the model was more complete than that collected by the 3D laser. Comparing the field test results with the numerical simulation results, the fit between the two is good, indicating the feasibility of using the model data obtained by UAV tilt photography for hazardous rock investigation, which provides an important reference value for future investigations of hazardous rock on high and steep slopes.

Monitoring the Effects of Slope Hazard Mitigation and Weather on Rockfall along a Colorado Highway Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Rockfall is a frequent hazard in mountainous areas, but risks can be mitigated by the construction of protection structures and slope modification. In this study, two rock slopes along a highway in western Colorado were monitored monthly using Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) before, during, and after mitigation activities were performed to observe the influence of construction and weather variables on rockfall activity. Between September 2020 and February 2021, the slopes were mechanically scaled and reinforced using rock bolts, wire mesh, and polyurethane resin injection. We used a state-of-the-art TLS monitoring workflow to process the acquired point clouds, including semi-automated algorithms for alignment, change detection, clustering, and rockfall-volume calculation. Our initial hypotheses were that the slope-construction activities would have an immediate effect on the rockfall rate post-construction and would exhibit a decreased correlation with weather-related triggering factors, such as precipitation and freeze-thaw cycles. However, our observations did not confirm this, and instead an increase in post-construction rockfall was recorded, with strong correlation to weather-related triggering factors. While this does not suggest that the overall mitigation efforts were ineffective in reducing rockfall hazard and risk of large blocks, we did not find evidence that mitigation efforts influenced the rockfall hazard associated with the release of small- to medium-sized blocks (<1 m3). These results can be used to develop improved and tailored mitigation methods for rock slopes in the future.

Control factors for mobility of dense and dilute debris flows

<p indent=0mm>Debris flow is a commonly occurring geological hazard in mountainous areas. The solid-liquid coupling makes the debris flows distinct from other geophysical fluids such as debris avalanches and floods. Owing to the complexity of this solid-liquid interaction, current research of debris-flow mobility focuses mainly on dense debris flows with a volumetric solid concentration of ~0.6. However, few studies focus on the physical processes occurring in the transition from dense to dilute debris flows with volumetric solid concentrations of 0.6–0.4. The objectives of this study are to explore the effects of changes in volumetric solid concentration on pore water pressure response and debris-flow mobility and to reveal the mechanisms in the transition from dense to dilute debris flows. Taking the debris-flow volumetric solid concentration and fluid viscosity as variables, a series of well-instrumented flume experiments is conducted. The results show that the high mobility of debris flow is closely related to the state of liquefaction. In the transition from dense to dilute debris flows, the shear dilatancy (state of solid particles) shifts from positive (dilation) to negative (contraction). As a result, the increase in pore water pressure causes the debris flow to liquefy, and the mobility surges accordingly. According to the calculated and measured shear stresses, it is apparent that the shear resistance of dense (dilute) debris flows is dominated by friction between the particles (viscous drag). An employed rheological model shows that the shear resistance in dense debris flows is insufficient for describing the rheological behavior of dilute flows. Models considering the interaction between particles, including friction and collision, and the viscosity of the fluid phase are warranted in future research.

Analysis of Debris Flow Reduction Effect of Check Dam Types considering the Mountain Stream Shape: A Case Study of 2016 Debris Flow Hazard in Ulleung-do Island, South Korea

Ulleung-do is a volcanic island located 130 km east of the Gangwon-do province of South Korea. It is characterized by steep slopes covered with effusive rocks released from multiple volcanic activities. Having accumulated deep colluvium, Ulleung-do Island manifests a high vulnerability to landslides frequently caused by heavy rains or typhoons, debris flow, rockfall, and other disaster hazards in mountainous areas. Therefore, facilities and residential areas located in the lower areas of the island sustain widespread damage. Hence, the installation of check dams designed to reflect the area’s local conditions is required to avoid further damage. In line with that, this study analyzes the disaster cases in Ulleung-do’s mountain areas and the effect of check dams in debris flow reduction for each type using the KANAKO-2D model. At observation point 1, the result shows that the maximum rate of debris flow is reduced by 48.5% with an open-type check dam installed and 62.9% with a closed-type check dam installed from the level without a check dam. For observation point 2, the maximum flow depth decreases by 49.7% with an open-type check dam and 77.4% with a closed-type check dam. Thus, this study suggests that the simple installation of check dams in a mountain stream that has experienced debris flow effectively mitigates damage brought by various disasters.

Assessment of shallow landslide susceptibility using an artificial neural network

Landslides are one of the most common and damaging natural hazards in mountainous areas. However, due to the complexity of the mechanisms that trigger landslides, it is very difficult to predict exactly when a landslide will occur. Therefore, research on landslide prevention and mitigation has mainly focused on predicting the locations of unstable slopes that are prone to landslides and are affected by multiple external forces. The prediction of the spatial distribution of unstable slopes, termed landslide susceptibility zonation, is important for government land-use planning and for reducing unnecessary loss of life and property. In this study, we investigated unstable slopes and established a GIS- and artificial neural network- (ANN-) based method to predict areas of potential landslides in the Silurian stratum in the Enshi region in China. Using failure mechanism analysis of typical existing landslides in the Silurian stratum, an evaluation index system was created that represents the most relevant factors influencing slope stability; an ANN was used to develop a susceptibility model to predict the spatial distribution of unstable slopes prone to landslides. The results were validated by remote sensing data and field investigations. This research proves that the proposed method for predicting the location of unstable slopes based on intelligence theory and GIS technology is accurate and reliable.

Experimental Verifications and Applications of 3D-DDA in Movement Characteristics and Disaster Processes of Rockfalls

Rockfalls are a major hazard in mountain areas and along engineering slopes. It is important to fully understand the characteristics and processes of rockfall movements, both for hazard assessment and countermeasure design. This study focused on the movement characteristics and disaster processes of rockfalls by three-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis (3D-DDA), the effectiveness of which was verified by outdoor experiments. An apparatus specifically built for the experiments was established, which included a releasing device and a binocular camera stereovision system. Blocks of three different shapes and sizes were released on slopes with three different inclinations on the campus of Tibet University. The indices of the movement characteristics of the blocks, such as lateral deviation, resting position, jumping height, and kinetic energy evolution, were investigated. The experimental results were compared with those of the 3D-DDA, so as to study the rockfall movement characteristics. On this basis, the 3D-DDA was applied to simulate a large-scale slope rockfall on the Tibetan Plateau, and the rockfall failure processes and movement characteristics were further analyzed. The results showed that the 3D-DDA method could effectively simulate the entire rockfall process in time and space, including instability and movement. Through the 3D-DDA numerical simulations, rockfall phenomena and behaviors could be fully understood. Furthermore, by analyzing the trajectories and kinetic energies of a rockfall, the prediction of rockfall disasters and the reasonable design of protective countermeasures could be realized.

The influence of geosynthetics design on the behavior of reinforced soil embankments subjected to rockfall impacts

Rockfall hazard in mountainous areas requires the construction of protective structures for the buildings or transport facilities. Reinforced soil embankments can be effective protections against rockfalls due to the combination of the damping characteristics of the soil and the tensile resistance of the reinforcements. Following the advances in soil reinforcements, the research is ongoing for this type of structures aiming to optimize their shape and reinforcement design. In order to study the influence of the different geosynthetics design, two reinforced soil embankments are tested experimentally. The embankments had vertical facings and a slenderness ratio of two with the purpose to reduce the footprint of the conventional trapezoidal shape. Embankment 1 had two vertical layers of geogrids that divided its cross section in three equal parts, while Embankment 2 had multiple geogrid strips installed horizontally close to the front facing. Horizontal impact tests are performed on the two embankments using reinforced concrete blocks as impactors with the aid of a pendulum device. Several instruments and sensors are used to monitor the behavior of the embankments, namely accelerometers, pressure sensors, strain gauges, rapid cameras and a laser scanner. During the tests, the two embankments experienced local shearing at the impact position and overall backward leaning. Moreover, a waves' propagation effect is observed during the first moments of the impact at the sensors installed in the embankments. The speed of the propagation of these waves appears to be influenced by the reinforcement design of the embankments. After the tests, Embankment 2 was less deformed than Embankment 1, which is attributed to their different reinforcement design. According to the strain gauges measurements, the geogrids of Embankment 2 were more mobilized in the vicinity of the impact compared to the ones of Embankment 1. These tests showed that the geogrids installed in horizontal position close to the front facing are more efficient compared to the ones installed vertically and deeper in the embankment. • The tested reinforced soil embankments have vertical facings for foundation optimization. • The reinforced soil embankments have a slenderness ratio of two. • The geosynthetics design plays an important role in the impact response of embankments. • The tested embankments are vulnerable with regard to structural stability. • The impact waves propagation is demonstrated by accelerometers, pressure sensors and strain gauges.

GIS-based rockfall hazard zones modeling along the coastal Gulf of Aqaba Region, Egypt

Rockfall is a natural hazard in mountainous areas not to be underestimated. Mass activities differing in rock volume may cause considerable economic damage. Accomplishing qualitative appraisal of high-potential zones for rockfall is a first step towards implementing mitigation strategies. Nowadays, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are the state-of-the-art tool for a fast and economic approach of identifying potential hazard zones rather than using conventional mapping with in-situ field data. Primarily, current research focuses on designing and implementing user-friendly tools delineating potential rockfall hazard zonation (RHZ). The constructed model examines triggering factors like slope, aspect, elevation, lithology, structural lineament, rainfall intensity, and seismic activity focal depth of a mountainous coastal region (Gulf of Aqaba, Egypt). The extracted geomorphological parameters were based on a high-resolution TanDEM-X Digital Elevation Model. The enhanced Landsat ETM + 7 was used to generate the lithological and structural lineament parameters, while the rainfall data were collected from NASA project tool. The zonation model was implemented by means of ESRI’s ArcGIS Pro ModelBuilder. Google Earth Pro orthophotos compared with the generated rockfall hazard zonation map indicate the potential RHZ with high reliability. The achieved results show that 15 % of the study area qualifies as a high rockfall hazard zone. As the RHZs generated by the model depend on the input data and the selected rating scores and weights, obtaining ground truth is essential to get a trustworthy result. Finally, this study recommends employing the built RHZ model on similar terrains worldwide to support decision-makers involving any sustainable development projects.

Preliminary Identification of Geological Hazards from Songpinggou to Feihong in Mao County along the Minjiang River Using SBAS-InSAR Technique Integrated Multiple Spatial Analysis Methods

Landslides and collapses are common geological hazards in mountainous areas, posing significant threats to the lives and property of residents. Therefore, early identification of disasters is of great significance for disaster prevention. In this study, we used Small Baseline Subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SBAS-InSAR) technology to process C-band Sentinel-1A images to monitor the surface deformation from Songpinggou to Feihong in Maoxian County, Sichuan Province. Visibility analysis was used to remove the influence of geometric distortion on the SAR images and retain deformation information in the visible area. Hot spot and kernel density analyses were performed on the deformation data, and 18 deformation clusters were obtained. Velocity and slope data were integrated, and 26 disaster areas were interpreted from the 18 deformation clusters, including 20 potential landslides and 6 potential collapses. A detailed field investigation indicated that potential landslides No. 6 and No. 8 had developed cracks and were severely damaged, with a high probability of occurrence. Potential collapse No. 22 had developed fissures, exposing a dangerous rock mass and posing significant threats to the lives and property of residents. This study shows that the proposed method that combines visibility analysis, InSAR deformation rates, and spatial analysis can quickly and accurately identify potential geological disasters and provide guidance for local disaster prevention and mitigation.

Effects of tree spacing and thinning on root reinforcement in mountain forests of the European Southern Alps

Root reinforcement is a mechanism through which forests contribute to the prevention and mitigation of shallow instabilities in soils, one of the main hazards in mountain areas. This study aims to assess how spatial tree distribution and whether thinning operations affect root reinforcement in the most common forest types of the European Southern Alps. We measured size and position of the trees of 119 stands, belonging to sweet chestnut, European beech, Norway spruce, and spruce-beech-silver fir forest types. We developed, calibrated and validated a model for estimating root reinforcement at the stand level, using the spatial distribution of tree diameter as the input variable. Finally, we simulated a thinning of 18% stand basal area, selecting removal trees from smaller diameter classes (low thinning) or from random clusters (random cluster thinning), and assessed its effect on root reinforcement. Root reinforcement statistically differed among forest types and the lowest values were found in the sweet chestnut forest type. Irrespective of the forest type, low thinning did not significantly modify root reinforcement, while random cluster thinning reduced it five-fold.

Spatial Statistical Modeling of Rockfall Hazard in a Mountainous Road in Cantabria (Spain)

Rockfall events are one of the most frequent types of mass wasting in mountainous areas, causing service and traffic disruption, as well as infrastructure and human damage. Hence, having accurate tools to model these hazards becomes crucial to prevent fatalities, especially in a context of climate change whereby the effects of these phenomena might be exacerbated. Under this premise, this article concerned the development of a framework for assessing rockfall hazard in mountainous areas. First, a set of factors expected to favor rockfalls were processed and aggregated using spatial analysis tools, yielding a series of hazard maps with which to fit observed data through statistical modeling. The validation process was undertaken with the support of a database containing the number of rocks removed from a mountainous road section located in Cantabria, northern Spain. The results achieved, which demonstrated the accuracy of the proposed approach to reproduce rockfall hazard using frequency data, highlighted the primary role played by factors such as slope, runoff threshold, and precipitation to explain the occurrence of these events. The effects of climate change were considerably influenced by the fluctuations in the projections of precipitation, which limited the variations in the spatial distribution and magnitude of rockfall hazard.

Rockfall susceptibility along the regional road network of Aosta Valley Region (northwestern Italy)

ABSTRACT Rockfalls are a major hazard in mountain areas. They can endanger human settlements and infrastructures, and, every year, cause multiple damage and victims. An investigation of those areas more susceptible to rockfall represents a key approach to improve the analysis and management of rockfall impact and consequences. The proposed procedure involves the study of occurred rockfall databases and thematic maps to compute a susceptibility map, by the employment of Analytical Hierarchic Process. The computation is focused on the road network of Aosta Valley Region (northwestern Italy) and its proximity. The model results highlight the importance of morphometric factors on the investigated phenomena. The outcomes of the analysis were also validated by comparing rockfall databases with the receiver operating characteristic curve, in order to confirm their reliability. The results of the procedure are a starting point for a detailed planning action in order to manage the hazard related to these phenomena.