In the last 20 years, several catastrophic precipitation-induced landslides have hit villages, towns and roads in Campania (southern Italy), causing extensive damage and many fatalities. Although such phenomena have occurred since time immemorial, recent urbanisation and infrastructural development have produced a major increase in landslide risk. Due to climatic changes and further unavoidable increases in exposure, in the near future, the risk will become even greater. It is therefore high time to develop reliable criteria for landslide prediction. The paper discusses the main factors which affect the triggering of precipitation-induced landslides, highlighting the key role played by antecedent rainfalls which cannot be precisely accounted for using empirical criteria. We propose a simple 1D numerical approach able to predict the evolution of the key factors governing slope stability as a tool to predict the onset of slope failure, with potential benefits for early warning systems. The approach is calibrated through a well-documented case history

No abstract

No abstract

In different areas of the world, shallow landslides represent a remarkable hazard inducing fatalities and economic damages. Then, the evaluation about potential variation in frequency of such hazard under the effect of climate changes should be a priority for defining reliable adaptation measurements. Unfortunately, current performances of climate models on sub-daily scales, relevant for heavy rainfall events triggering shallow landslides, are not reliable enough to be used directly for performing slope stability analysis. In an attempt to overcome the constrains by gap in time resolution between climate and hazard models, the paper presents an integrated suitable approach for estimating future variations in shallow landslide hazard and managing the uncertainties associated with climate and sub-daily downscaling models. The approach is tested on a small basin on Amalfi coast (southern Italy). Basing on available basin scale critical rainfall thresholds, the paper outlines how the projected changes in precipitation patterns could affect local slope stability magnitude scenarios with different relevances as effect of investigated time horizon and concentration scenario. The paper concludes with qualitative evaluations on the future effectiveness of the local operative warning system in a climate change framework

No abstract