INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE “HISTORIC AND PREHISTORIC LANDSLIDES IN THE NORTHERN ITALIAN ALPS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NEW HAZARD MAPS IN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS”

Abstract

People living and working in mountainous areas are familiar with landslides. These events are sadly known to pose a serious threat to people and infrastructures, being also a relevant process in landscape evolution. In the Alps, where narrow valleys are increasingly inhabited, landslides occur every year, and some of them are responsible for a tragic number of casualties, and huge economic losses. In the last decades, a growing interest in such phenomena has developed, these phenomena being increasingly studied in all of their aspects.