Landslide hazard assessment: Summary review and new perspectives

This paper deals with several aspects of the assessment of hazard and risk of landsliding. In recent years the interest in this topic has increased greatly and there are many technical papers dealing with this subject in the literature. This article presents a summary review and a classification of the main approaches that have been developed worldwide. The first step is the subdivision between qualitative and quantitative methods. The first group is mainly based on the site-specific experience of experts with the susceptibility/hazard determined directly in the field or by combining different index maps. The approaches of the second group are formally more rigorous. It is possible to distinguish between statistical analyses (bivariate or multivariate) and deterministic methods that involve the analysis of specific sites or slopes based on geo-engineering models. Such analyses can be deterministic or probabilistic. Among the quantitative methods discussed is the Neural Networks approach which has only recently been applied to engineering geology problems. Finally several considerations concerning the concept of acceptable risk and risk management are presented.