Major Hazards Specialised Centers
European and Mediterranean
Major Hazards Agreement
Major Hazards Agreement
Commonly, slope hazard evaluations are prepared at large observation scales (<1:100.000), where well-adopted methodologies exist. At small observation scales (>1:100.000), some operational methodologies do exist and have been partially applied, but a common acceptance or even agreement on best practice does not exist. Further, the lack of cross-boundary cooperation has led to the development of national procedures while the occurrence of slope movements is a shared problem across Europe. Some premises of a harmonised approach have, however, been proposed in recent research initiatives (ESBN, EC project SafeLand, JRC's European Landslide Expert Group), which resulted in the release of the first version of a generic pan-European slope movement susceptibility map (ELSUS) in 2013.
Great effort has been put in collecting slope movement information and in developing complex and robust statistical/process-based models for hazard prediction at small scales (EC projects ALARM, MONITORI-II, MOUNTAIN-RISKS, CHANGES, LAMPRE, ADAPTALP). In the same time, data products from Earth Observation (EO) systems (satellite and ground-based) are increasingly available and offer new opportunities for slope movement detection, mapping and monitoring.
However, despite all these efforts, no standardised European approach to slope movement inventorying and occurrence estimation (e.g. link with triggers such as rainfall and seismic activity) exists in practice.
The global objectives of this project are:
To propose landslide triggering thresholds for several European regions
To integrate triggering factors (rainfall, seismic activity) in the various landslide susceptibility assessment methods (geomorphological approach, statistical/process-based models) for hazard assessment at national/global scales
To propose harmonised cross-boundary datasets (conditioning factors, inventories) for landslide hazard model benchmarking
Organisation of an intensive Post-graduate training school on ʺLandslides and Other Geological Hazards in Active Volcanic Environmentsʺ in July 2016 in Ponta Delgada (Azores, Portugal)
Finalisation and release of the version 2 of the European Landslide Susceptibility (ELSUS) map. The ELSUS V2 map shows the landslide susceptibility zonation for individual climate-physiographic zones across Europe.
Compilation of a database of empirical rainfall thresholds for the possible occurrence of landslides in Europe
Prototype method for coupling rainfall thresholds to landslide susceptibility maps at global scale using statistical approaches
Prototype method for coupling seismic activity parameters to landslide susceptibility maps at global scale
Calculation of statistical landslide triggering thresholds (e.g. rainfall amounts, rainfall intensity, other parameters) for Georgia
Test of a methodology to integrate triggering thresholds in the global scale landslide hazard assessments (e.g. for scale > 1.100.000) in Georgia
Test of a methodology to integrate seismic triggering thresholds in the global scale landslide hazard assessment in Georgia
New map of rainfall-triggered landslide hazard stationary map in Georgia
New map of rainfall-triggered mudflow hazard stationary map in Georgia
Compilation of existing information on earthquake triggered landslides in Portugal
Compilation and preliminary analysis of available data on: rainfall triggered landslides inventories; geotechnical data on different geological formations; existing geological mapping covering the whole country and their suitability for landslide susceptibility assessment; Seismic parameters of recent historical earthquakes in Portugal (1909, 1969); earthquake sources for mainland Portugal
Analysis of existing methods for seismic landslide susceptibility assessment
