Landslides in Emilia-Romagna region (Italy): strategies for hazard assessment and risk management

In Emilia-Romagna, over 32,000 landslide bodies cover one-fifth of the hilly and mountainous territory. The majority of them originated as earth-flows after the last glacial maximum and grew during the rainiest periods of the Holocene through the superimposition of new earth-flows. Reactivation of these large landslides is the main problem the geologists of Emilia-Romagna are facing now. Intense and/or prolonged precipitation play a major role as triggering factors in reactivating landslide bodies, but also the importance of snowmelt is suggested by the monthly distribution of landslide events. Almost all the present-day landslide activity is due to the reactivation of pre-existing landslide bodies. Consequently, territorial planning and geo-thematic cartography are fundamental tools for the reduction of risk. The Emilia-Romagna geo-thematic cartography 1:10,000) is legally binding and regulates land use in regional, municipal and basin plans.