LAND-deFeND – An innovative database structure for landslides and floods and their consequences

Abstract

Information on historical landslides and floods - collectively called "geo-hydrological hazards - is key to understand the complex dynamics of the events, to estimate the temporal and spatial frequency of damaging events, and to quantify their impact. A number of databases on geo-hydrological hazards and their consequences have been developed worldwide at different geographical and temporal scales. Of the few available database structures that can handle information on both landslides and floods some are outdated and others were not designed to store, organize, and manage information on single phenomena or on the type and monetary value of the damages and the remediation actions. Here, we present the LANDslides and Floods National Database (LAND-deFeND), a new database structure able to store, organize, and manage in a single digital structure spatial information collected from various sources with different accuracy. In designing LAND-deFeND, we defined four groups of entities, namely: nature-related, human-related, geospatial-related, and information-source-related entities that collectively can describe fully the geo-hydrological hazards and their consequences. In LAND-deFeND, the main entities are the nature-related entities, encompassing: (i) the "phenomenon", a single landslide or local inundation, (ii) the "event", which represent the ensemble of the inundations and/or landslides occurred in a conventional geographical area in a limited period, and (iii) the "trigger", which is the meteo-climatic or seismic cause (trigger) of the geo-hydrological hazards. LAND-deFeND maintains the relations between the nature-related entities and the human-related entities even where the information is missing partially. The physical model of the LAND-deFeND contains 32 tables, including nine input tables, 21 dictionary tables, and two association tables, and ten views, including specific views that make the database structure compliant with the EC INSPIRE and the Floods Directives. The LAND-deFeND database structure is open, and freely available from http://geomorphology.irpi.cnr.it/tools.

An Open-Source Web Platform to Share Multisource, Multisensor Geospatial Data and Measurements of Ground Deformation in Mountain Areas

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“…Web service technologies, as the spatial data infrastructures (SDIs), enable the scientific community to set up large and heterogeneous data infrastructures, developing reliable methods of representing and mapping information [11][12][13]. SDIs are useful to implement a framework of geographic data and metadata, constituting an efficient and flexible way to discover and manage geospatial information.…”

Linking data across the value chain of underutilised crops – a multidisciplinary approach

“…The logical design involves entities transforming to tables, attributes transforming to table fields, and relationships established through primary and foreign keys among tables (Codd, 1972;Date, 1999, Napolitano et al, 2018. To avoid confusion, the entities are written with double quotation marks (e.g.…”

Geomorphology of landslide–flood-critical areas in hilly catchments and urban areas for EWS (Feltrino Stream and Lanciano town, Abruzzo, Central Italy)

“…These events are due to various factors such as geological and geomorphological setting, environmental degradation, rapid population growth, and intensified and improper land uses. Furthermore, the expansion of urban areas and infrastructure over the last 50 years has led to a marked increase in flood and landslide exposure and risk (Bathrellos et al, 2016;Cevasco et al, 2015;Froude & Petley, 2018;García-Soriano et al, 2020;Guerriero et al, 2018;Jha et al, 2012;Napolitano et al, 2018;Nirupama & Simonovic, 2007;Quesada-Román et al, 2020;Ramos et al, 2017). Despite the recent advances in methods for assessing pluvial flood and rainfall-induced landslides hazards and risks and enhancing the resilience of cities, the preparation of maps of natural hazards and critical areas is still fundamental for urban development and management.…”