A GIS-Based Approach for Shallow Landslides Risk Assessment in the Giampilieri and Briga Catchments Areas (Sicily, Italy)

Abstract

Shallow landslides pose a widely growing hazard and risk, globally and particularly in Mediterranean areas. The implementation of adequate adaptation and mitigation measures necessarily requires the development of practical and affordable methodologies and technologies for assessing the shallow landslides hazard and its territorial impact. The assessment of shallow landslide hazard maps involves two different and sequential steps: the susceptibility and the runout analysis, respectively, aimed at the identification of the initiation and the propagation areas. This paper describes the application in the Giampilieri and Briga Villages area (Sicily, Italy) of a shallow landslide risk process at a basin scale with an innovative approach in the runout assessment segment. The runout analysis was conducted using specific GIS tools employing an empirical–geometric approach at a basin scale. The exposure and vulnerability values of the elements at risk were assigned using a qualitative and semi-quantitative approach, respectively. The results highlight the effectiveness of the procedure in producing consistent runout hazard and risk assessments in the valley areas where the more important and vulnerable exposed elements are located. This study contributes to addressing the public administration demand for valuable and user-friendly tools to manage and drive regional planning.

Infrastructure Impact Assessment through Multi-Hazard Analysis at Different Scales: The 26 November 2022 Flood Event on the Island of Ischia and Debris Management

“…Hazard monitoring, supported by Decision Support Systems (DSS), such as the ENEA's Critical Infrastructure Protection risk analysis and the foreCast (CIPCast) platform [51], an inter-operable tool that can prove to be essential in the protection of critical CI, can provide effective support in dealing with issues related to hazard analysis and mapping [45,[52][53][54]. GIS-based approaches are fundamental to carry out the hazard assessments, especially in realities that are so deeply marked by cyclically recurring disasters triggered by natural hazards (floods, landslides, earthquakes) [42,[55][56][57][58]. The DSS are strategic for a continuous and careful monitoring of CI, given the intrinsic hydrogeological and seismic hazards of the national territory, allowing for real-time, cross-referenced information on the different hazards and, by systemizing the different information layers, using multi-hazard matrices for the investigation of the different types of CI [52][53][54]57,59,60].…”