Main achievements

Development of an empirical model for assessing the changes in landslide frequency (hazard) as a function of changes in the demography and population density.

Development and testing of several empirical methods for predicting the characteristics of threshold rainfall events for triggering of precipitation-induced landslides.

Hotspots of landslide hazard and risk were identified by an objective GIS based analysis for Europe. The results show clearly where landslide pose the largest hazard in Europe and the objective approach allows a ranking of the countries by exposed area and population.

Different regional climate model simulations over Europe (from the EU FP6 project ENSEMBLES) at a spatial resolution of 25 x 25 km² have been used to perform an extreme value analysis for trends in heavy precipitation events. In winter a general trend towards more heavy precipitation events across all analyzed regional climate model simulations is found. For summer, a slight increase of heavy precipitation in Northern Europe and a general decrease in southern Europe is found in all regional climate model simulations.

The prototype of a web-based "toolbox” of innovative and technically appropriate prevention and mitigation measures was developed. The toolbox does a preliminary assessment and ranking of up to 60 structural and non-structural landslide risk mitigation options. The evaluation is based on technology, experience and expert judgment in Europe and abroad, and factors such as cost-effectiveness, maturity and applicability of technology, aesthetics, and other user-defined criteria are considered.

Case histories and "hotspots" of European Landslides have been collected and documented. Data for 41 potential case study sites have been compiled and summarized. These comprise 39 sites in Europe located in Italy, France, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Andorra, and Romania; as well as one site in Canada and one in India. Almost every type of landslide and every type of movement is represented in these sites.