Technical Note: Implementation of a geodatabase of published and unpublished data on the catastrophic Vaiont landslide

Abstract

Abstract. On 9 October 1963 a catastrophic landslide suddenly occurred on the southern slope of the Vaiont dam reservoir. A mass of approximately 270 million m 3 collapsed into the reservoir generating a wave that overtopped the dam and hit the town of Longarone and other villages nearby. Several investigations and interpretations of the slope collapse have been carried out during the last 45 years, however, a comprehensive explanation of both the triggering and the dynamics of the phenomenon has yet to be provided.In order to re-evaluate the currently existing information on the slide, an electronic bibliographic database and an ESRI-geodatabase have been developed. The chronology of the collected documentation showed that most of the studies for re-evaluating the failure mechanisms were conducted in the last decade, as a consequence of knowledge, methods and techniques recently acquired.

The prehistoric Vajont rockslide: An updated geological model

“…In certain cases, even the same author utilized both spelling of the name in different papers: as for example Semenza (Giudici and Semenza, 1960;Semenza, 1965Semenza, , 2001Semenza, , 2010 and Müller (1964Müller ( , 1968Müller ( , 1987. Even recently the well-known catastrophic rockslide has been reported as Vajont (Kilburn and Petley, 2003;Paronuzzi, 2009b) and as the Vaiont landslide (Genevois and Ghirotti, 2005;Alonso and Pinyol, 2010;Superchi et al, 2010).…”

“…The bibliographical archive on the Vajont rockslide currently includes more than 120 scientific papers and technical reports (Superchi et al, 2010), starting from the first studies carried out at the time of the dam construction (Giudici and Semenza, 1960) to the latest historical reviews (Semenza and Ghirotti, 2000;Genevois and Ghirotti, 2005;Ghirotti, 2006) and recent papers on specific topics Pinyol and Alonso, 2010;Ferri et al, 2011a,b). If one examines the extensive bibliography on the Vajont rockslide, we see that most wellknown research papers are written in the English language, but some Italian papers were published immediately after the 1963 catastrophe containing important geological descriptions that are often unavailable Geomorphology 169-170 (2012) to international researchers.…”

Risk Governance

“…The 1963 Vaiont Dam disaster in the Italian Alps resulted from a large rockslide into the reservoir that produced dam over-topping and a downstream fl ood wave that took 2,500 lives and destroyed agricultural, residential, industrial and transportation facilities for 30 km down the Piave valley (Superchi et al 2010 ) (Fig. Today, dams and reservoirs are seen as important sources of hydro-electric power and they are used for such in most mountain regions.…”

Preface Results of the open session on "Documentation and monitoring of landslides and debris flows" for mathematical modelling and design of mitigation measures, held at the EGU General Assembly 2009

“…An example of the application of the latter mentioned tool is the technical note "Implementation of a geodatabase of published and unpublished data on the catastrophic Vaiont landslide" (Superchi et al, 2010) that presents a reevaluation of the already existing information on the famous landslide, organized in a ESRI-geodatabase. The 9 October 1963 Vajont landslide represents one of the most important worldwide known gravitational phenomena.…”