Built-Up Area Exposure to Landslides and Related Social Impacts in Molise (Italy)

Open image in new window In central-southern Italy, Molise stands among the most prone sectors to landslide occurrence where mass movements regularly affect towns and villages, causing frequent damages to assets such as infrastructures or houses. For these reasons landslides may influence the life quality of the population in the area. Aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the exposure to landslides occurrence by considering the landslide susceptibility map, that is the potential for an area to become unstable and the population dynamics in Molise, with a particular focus on population dynamics and its relation with susceptibility and exposure. For each municipality of the region we attempt to find a correspondence between the areal extension of the elements exposed to landslide susceptibility, and the Demographic Malaise State indicator (SMD). The SMD is a composite index that analyses the changes of growing/decreasing rates in the local population. This can lead to a better understanding of how the environment degradation (in terms of landslide occurrence and evolution) could promote out-migration from the affected areas. The observed results indicate that for the case study there is indeed a certain connection between the landslide exposure of the analyzed assets and the SMD, especially in the central area of the region, where the susceptibility is higher. This study is a contribution to improve the knowledge of the relationships among landslide prone areas and social effects in the Molise territory, which can be essential for the development of efficient strategies for landslide risk reduction.