Climate Changes and Landslide Hazard

Landslides are a significant threat to the critical infrastructures, and this hazard has two type of phenomena: in the first case, the infrastructure is targeted by a sliding material, and in the second case is itself an integral part of the landslide. In both cases, the damage to the infrastructure may be large and accompanied by significant losses of human life and recovery may be long and very expensive. Weather conditions, such as heavy rainfall, due to the increase of groundwater level and soil saturation are common triggers of landslides occurrence. It's expected that the climate changes in the coming decades cause a significant increase in precipitation, which will directly affect the increase in the number of active landslides. This paper provides an overview of the climate changes impact to the dangers caused by landslides. This work is the result of scientific research in the EU-CIRCLE project, financed through the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union.