Integration of landslide hazard into urban planning across Europe

Abstract An enquiry-based and participatory analysis approach is carried out to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the heterogeneous legislations across Europe that regulate the integration of landslide hazard into urban planning. Twenty one national and eight regional Geological Surveys (GSs) have participated in the analysis. The GSs report almost 4000 recent (2015–2017) damaging landslides events resulting in 39 fatalities and 155 injuries, destruction to housing, infrastructure and properties. In addition, 11 countries report 18 MORLE events over the past 10 years responsible for 150 fatalities and severe economic impacts. Results also reveal almost 48 million people living in areas with high and very high degrees of landslide-susceptibility (around 1 million km2 according to ELSUS v2). This work shows that almost half the participating countries (10 countries) have no legal guidance in the National Land Bill to stipulate consideration of landslides in urban planning practices, and mapping tools are often not adapted to a standard required to inform sustainable development. Furthermore, there is a wide range of laws and a large heterogeneity of mapping methods, scales and procedures. A relevant deficiency detected in many countries is the lack of landslide maps at a detailed resolution for urban planning. Additionally, some case studies of suboptimal urban development practices in areas of known instability have been discussed; they are found to be related to weak rule of law and/or absence of good governance. This paper shows inconsistencies across Europe in the handling of landslides and proposes a series of key actions to improve this situation, highlighting the need for a common regulatory framework to deal with this geohazard appropriately.