Populating a catalogue of rainfall events that triggered shallow landslides in Italy

In Italy, rainfall induced landslides - including soil slips and debris flows - occur every year, claiming lives and causing severe economic damages. In the 61-year period 1950-2010, such phenomena have caused more than 6400 casualties (SALVATI et alii, 2010). During 2011, 25 people have been either killed or wounded by landslides. As a result, the prediction of slope failures triggered by rainfall is of primary importance for decision makers and civil protection authorities. The predictive ability for rainfall induced landslides is still limited due to the complexity of the problem, to the number of the involved variables, and to the methodological approaches that are not always rigorous. As regards shallow landslides, a team of researchers working at CNR-IRPI (Italian National Research Council, Institute of Research for Geo-Hydrologic Protection) is carrying out a research project funded by the Italian national Department for Civil Protection (DPCN), aimed at defining regional and subregional rainfall thresholds.