As we did in 2022 and 2023, we would like to take advantage of the fact that some LandAware members will be in Vienna at #EGU24 in April… to get together for one evening, to meet and talk in person.
The get-together will be an informal dinner with good Austrian beer, self-funded by the participants (unfortunately LandAware doesn’t have any funding to manage), in a restaurant/brewery: Salm Brau. We suggest we meet there at 7:30 PM.
If you are in Vienna on that day, and you like the idea, we ask you to FILL THIS FORM as we need to know in advance the number of people participating (a reservation is necessary in that place).
NEWS received from Michele Calvello (University of Salerno, Italy)
The “LEWS fact sheets” is an ongoing project of the eLearning Working Group, aiming to highlight, in a single page, the main characteristics of operational landslide early warning systems. Go to the dedicated web page (https://www.landaware.org/lews-fact-sheets/) to see the fact sheets produced and published so far.
The latest fact sheet produced and uploaded deals with “Alerta Rio” the municipal system operating in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), which has been operational since 1996. Enjoy learning how it works.
Note: Are you a LEWS manager wanting your system to gain visibility by means of “our” fact sheets? Are you a LandAware member wanting to help us in creating new fact sheets? Do not hesitate to contact Michele Calvello or Anne Felsberg.
Shallow landslides are responsible for more than 50% of causalities due to landslides in northwestern Italy in the last century. The aim of the research study presented here is focused on understanding if and how climate change influences the occurrence and behavior of this landslide type. A total of 120 widespread shallow landslide events have been analyzed from 1960 to 2019, taking into account the spatial and time distribution in association with related rainfall historical data elaborated by the Optimal Interpolation (OI) model. Results underline that shallow landslide events’ number (aggregated per five-year intervals) is characterized by a weak trend consisting of a slight increase in the Alps and a more pronounced decrease in the hilly and Apennines environments. In addition, the trend of the annual accumulated rainfall average shows a weak drop in the winter season of about 9 mm in ten years. Moreover, the rainy days have generally decreased over the hills and Apennines, while in the Alps, only in the summer season, with a decreasing rate of about 1.5 days every ten years. The rainfall trends are in accordance with those of shallow landslide events, pointing out the close and direct dependence of the shallow landslide events on the rainfall regime variations. The results obtained were also used to validate the robustness of the performance of the Regional Shallow Landslide Early Warning System adopted in Piemonte over the investigated period, confirming the effectiveness of the trigger thresholds used for the entire historical series and for different geographical areas.
Reference: Tiranti D., Ronchi C. (2023) Climate Change Impacts on Shallow Landslide Events and on the Performance of the Regional Shallow Landslide Early Warning System of Piemonte (Northwestern Italy). GeoHazards 2023, 4(4), 475-496; https://doi.org/10.3390/geohazards4040027
A new Special Issue entitled “Landslide Research: State of the Art and Innovations” in the GeoHazards journal is currently open for contributions. The Special Issue is guest-edited by Davide Tiranti. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/geohazards/special_issues/U728W8F9ZX The purpose of this Special Issue is to collect and group together quality scientific papers on these research fields and derived practical/operational applications. The topics related to the Special Issue therefore concern the innovative methodologies to achieve landslides identification, classification, characterization and hazard/risk evaluation through geomorphological field surveys and studies, remote sensing applications, GIS data mapping, processing and representation, the analysis of predisposing and triggering factors, landslide early warning systems implementation and the impact of current and future climate change scenarios on the evolution of these phenomena.
The next International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) – TC220 Field Monitoring in Geomechanics series of international lectures will take place on Friday 26th of January 2024 at 11:00 CET. It will be given by Dr. Luca Piciullo, with a lecture on “A fully operational IoT-based real-time slope stability analysis for an unsaturated slope in Norway”. This is the fifth in this very successful series of lectures.
The lecture will be introduced by Dr. Neelima Satyam.
To join the lecture, please use the following link: https://lnkd.in/g8Cn_W2D or scan the QR code.
The recording of the presentation on the failure prediction and hazard management of the “Insel” rockslide compartment at Brienz/Brinzails (Eastern Switzerland) held on 18 January 2024 by Simon Löw is online on the LandAware YouTube channel.
Seminar by Simon Löw on the “Failure prediction and Hazard management of the “Insel” rockslide compartment at Brienz/Brinzauls (Eastern Switzerland).
The call-for-abstracts of EGU General Assembly 2024 is open! #EGU24 will be held in Vienna, Austria, and online on 14-19 April 2024. Don’t miss the chance to submit an abstract to our session entitled Towards innovative Landslide monitoring, modelling, and Early Warning Systems!
Contributions addressing the following topics are welcome: – conventional and innovative slope-scale monitoring systems for early warning purposes – conventional and innovative regional prediction tools for warning purposes – innovative on-site instruments and/or remote sensing devices implemented in LEWS – warning models for warning/alert issuing – operational applications and performance analyses of LEWS – communication strategies – emergency phase management
The abstract submission deadline is 10 January 2024, 13:00 CET.
NEWS received from Stefano Luigi Gariano (CNR-IRPI, Italy)
A new research grant is available at CNR-IRPI, Perugia, Italy.
The topic of the grant (on which the evaluation of qualifications and the interview will be based) is “Analysis of rainfall and geomorphological data and development of prediction models for rainfall-induced landslide triggering at a territorial scale“. The research grant is part of the project “Prediction of Rainfall-INduced landslides – Improving multi-scale TerritoriAL Early warning through aRTificial intelligence (PRIN-ITALERT)” funded by EU-NextGenerationEU.
Deadline for applications: 28 December 2023
The selection will be made by evaluation of qualifications and interview.
More information (in Italian and English) on the application and selection procedure can be found at:
The PRIN-ITALERT project (Prediction of Rainfall-INduced landslides – Improving multi-scale TerritoriAL Early warning through aRTificial intelligence) aims at improving the operational prediction of rainfall-induced landslides over large areas taking advantage of both rainfall thresholds defined using satellite-based rainfall products and innovative approaches based on artificial intelligence algorithms, in particular, Random Forest and Artificial Neural Networks. Other information about the project here: https://www.irpi.cnr.it/en/project/prin-italert/
Seminar by Simon Löw (ETH Zurich) and Andreas Huwiler (Canton of Grisons)
A seminar by Simon Löw (ETH Zurich) and Andreas Huwiler (Canton of Grisons), experts of the crisis management team, will be held online on Thursday, 18 January, 2024, 3:30 to 4:30 pm CET
The massive landslide above Brienz/Brinzauls (Eastern Switzerland) was one of the most highly regarded events in the Alps in 2023. An entire village had to be evacuated and there was great uncertainty as to how far the released mass would run out. In this LandAware seminar, two experts from the operational crisis management will tell us how they experienced the situation before and during the event and what lessons they learned from it.
The Brienz/Brinzauls landslide. Photo by Christoph Nänni
Simon Löw (ETH Zurich) will explain the hazard scenarios, the expected and observed long-term displacement evolution, the early warning criteria and evacuation phases, and finally the collapse processes.
Andreas Huwyler (Canton of Grisons) will answer questions regarding the communication with the local people who were evacuated one month before the event and with the media.
There will also be time for questions and discussion.
Scientists should have an obligation to make their work useful to society. To fulfill this they need to be engaged with society, including people in their science, right from the concept stages – to the final results, and to ensure that their work comes back into the communities impacted by their work.
UNESCO International Geosciences Projects 692 ‘Geoheritage for Resilience’ (www.geopoderes.com) and partners are initiating a discussion on this to cover three important aspects of scientists in society. One, the relationship between scientists from the global north and those from the global south (the latter have the money but are far removed from their impacted communities, the latter are closer but have less). Two, the relationship between local scientists and their local communities, and how to best respect the needs of both, and integrate them. Three, is it possible to draft a charter to set out the behavior that communities and southern scientists could expect northern scientists to uphold? This latter follows initiatives for ethical Science, like the Research Fairness Initiative (RFI).
These topics will be discussed in person at a session at the Cities on Volcanoes Conference, in Antigua Guatemala (11 – 17 February 2024).
Preparatory discussion will be held, starting on the 28th November 4PM CET (Spanish Language session), with an on-line discussion. Or on 29th November 7 AM CET (English Language Session).
Please join us by registering at https://tinyurl.com/yqwchyq9 (Spanish Language session) or by registering at https://tinyurl.com/mw7pkc (English Language Session) or both!
This session is a Memorial for Martha Navarro Collado, who died in 24th December 2022, and whose life’s work was an embodiment of how support at risk communities, equitable science in Nicaragua. Martha’s life is also an example of the struggle of a woman scientist from a southern (in development) country. She never hesitated to speak her mind forcibly and was very much our conscience in fair engagement across the north – south divide and between scientists and communities.
Organisors: Eveling Espinoza Jaime (Istituto Nicaragüense de Estudios Territoriales, Nicaragua), Nelida Manrique (Instituto Geológico, Minero y Metalúrgico, Peru), Mariana Patricia Jácome (Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico), Julie Morin (University of Cambridge, UK), Benjamin van Wyk de Vries (Université Clermont Auvergne, France).
It has been 10 years since the landslide and slushflow early warning service was established in Norway. It has played an important role in increasing awareness and knowledge about landslides (i.e., debris flows, debris avalanches) and slushflows.
The iconic rubber boots that illustrate the warning levels used in Jordskredvarslingen. Photo: Hervé Colleuille, NVE
Hervé Colleuille, Heidi Grønsten, and Graziella Devoli from NVE prepared a short article to tell the story of the “Jordskredvarslingen” system, describe its strengths and provide information on the tools developed and used in the deployment of the system.