Use of Satellite Soil Moisture Products for the Operational Mitigation of Landslides Risk in Central Italy

The mitigation of landslide risk is needed for improving the resilience of our society to extreme events, particularly under climatic and global change conditions. The two main climatic drivers triggering shallow landslides can be identified in precipitation and soil moisture, as clearly recognized in the recent scientific literature. Surprisingly, the use of measurements of soil moisture is rarely employed in Early Warning systems for landslides prediction, and only a couple studies have considered satellite soil moisture observations in this context. This chapter aims at describing the Early Warning system for hydrogeological risk mitigation that is operating in Umbria Region (central Italy) since 2012, named PRESSCA, that fully exploit rainfall and soil moisture data for issuing warnings of possible landslides occurrence. Recently, PRESSCA system is being updated by incorporating in situ and satellite measurement of soil moisture for improving its reliability, robustness and accuracy. The preliminary analysis carried out for the optimal integration and use of satellite soil moisture data is described. Additionally, the added value of soil moisture observations with respect to the use of rainfall data only is shown.