Relationships between landslides and climatic changes: An annotated bibliography concerning Europe

Abstract

This study is part of a national research project concerning the relationships between landslides and climatic changes (MURST - Cofin 1999 Project "Mass movements as indicators of climate changes from the Lateglacial to date"). It consists of an annotated bibliographic review aiming at illustrating the state of the art on these topics, by defining the framework of knowledge at an international level, with particular attention paid to the European territory. Furthermore, the analysis of the works collected has allowed a series of problems relative to the relationships between landslides and climate changes to be pinpointed. For example, when a cluster of landslides is found, the nature of triggering factors should be carefully investigated in order to understand whether the concentration in time of landslide events is climatically induced or due to seismic or human activity. Moreover, any consideration on the relationships between past environmental conditions and landslide occurrence is feasible only when a certain number of events is datable. Further problems arise from the persistence in the landscape of landslide evidence which depends on the age of the event, the type, volume and nature of the material involved, as well as on the climatic conditions and, consequently, the intensity of geomorphological processes. The understanding of these aspects is of fundamental importance in order to achieve a proper interpretation of the data, mainly if a statistical analysis has to be undertaken. In addition, the uncertainty in the dating techniques should be taken into account. An in-depth knowledge of their principles and limitations is needed, together with the study of the geomorphological context This is necessary either In the sampling or in the data interpretation stage, especially in the case of landslides that have undergone several reactivations. In this annotated bibliography, references have been numbered and accompanied by a chart subdivided into four parts, where the geographic area, the type of process, the temporal scale and the dating method have been respectively reported. Each chart is completed by a short summary which emphasises the aspects concerning the relationships between landslides and climatic changes. The review has been completed by subdividing the works according to the entries identified and by listing the works in numbered charts based on the geographic area, temporal period and dating methods adopted. The bibliographic study and the analysis of over one hundred works collected have permitted the development of scientific research on this topic to be properly defined. In particular, for the different areas investigated, various considerations are presented on the temporal extension of the periods considered and the dating methods adopted.