CFTIlandslides

INFO

The CFTIlandslides, Italian database of historical earthquake-induced landslides by Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), was developed within the project “Multi-scale, integrated approach for the definition of earthquake-induced landslide hazard in Italy”, funded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, and completed in 2022. The goal of the project was to develop a multidisciplinary approach for assessing the earthquake-induced landslide hazard at national, regional, and local scales, combining existing databases and integrating them with the results from previous projects and research activities. The main objective was the investigation of the central Apennine region.

One of the main scopes of the project was locating more accurately all recorded landslides. To this end we focused on the review of historical sources - either newly found or already archived in our database - and on the analysis of scientific articles and technical reports. In summary, our working group reviewed and integrated data relating to historical earthquake-induced landslides that were already included in the CFTI5Med.

The combination of the relatively frequent seismic release with a very high landslide susceptibility, makes the Italian territory especially prone to the occurrence of earthquake-induced landslides. For this reason, over the past two years we continued our activity by reviewing all events included in the CFTI5Med for which landslide effects were reported, then we broadened the investigated area to the entire Italian territory.

As the CFTIlandslides was conceived as a “work in progress”, in this first release the knowledge available on each earthquake sequence was rated with a different level of detail:

- high level: all the available and newly acquired historical sources were analyzed; the descriptions of the effects were improved or corrected;
- medium level: there was a partial review of historical sources;
- low level: data were taken from descriptions supplied by CFTI5Med.

The texts of the historical sources frequently allowed us to assess the slope movement type of earthquake-induced landslides: for this item we adopted the classification already in use for the Italian Landslide Inventory (IFFI) database (see Legend).

We georeferenced all landslides based on the descriptions of the historical sources and on the geographical comparison with different types of datasets, including aerial photographs, geomorphological maps and instability maps: but the level of accuracy we achieved is variable. Therefore, each record was assigned one of the following location accuracy classes:

– Class A, the landslide is well located, either through a toponym or a detailed indication;
– Class B, the landslide falls in an identified broader area, but no further specification is available;
– Class C, the landslide is associated with a locality of the CFTI database: no specific geographic information is available.

The assignment to one of the three classes is based on the quality of the historical information and on the possibility of identifying the landslide site on modern maps; it is not a metric value.
We compared the location of each class A and B landslide with the location of all individual landslides included in the Italian Landslide Inventory (IFFI) database: when we found a satisfactory geographical correspondence with an IFFI landlisde, the two items were paired. For this specific case we created two additional classes:

– Class AI, if a Class A record is associated with one of the landslides included in IFFI;
– Class BI, if a Class B record is associated with one of the landslides included in IFFI.

The geographical correspondence was almost always coherent with the landslide movement type described in the historical sources, except for two recurring cases:

a) lack of information from the historical sources: in this case we adopted the landslide typology of the associated IFFI record;
b) some landslides described as rock falls in the historical sources were reported as complex, following the corresponding IFFI record.

CREDITS

How to cite the database:

Zei C., Tarabusi G., Ciuccarelli C., Burrato P., Sgattoni G., Taccone R.C., Mariotti D. (2024) - CFTIlandslides, Italian database of historical earthquake-induced landslides. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). https://doi.org/10.13127/cfti/landslides

The database was designed and developed by Gabriele Tarabusi and compiled by all the authors, based on a revision of CFTI5Med data, conducted within the activities of the CFTI working group.
The webgis interface was designed and developed using the OpenLayers (https://openlayers.org/) library and its extensions “OL-ext” (https://viglino.github.io/ol-ext/) and “OL-Cesium” (https://openlayers.org/ol-cesium/) by Gabriele Tarabusi with contributions by Rita Chiara Taccone (technical and system support).
The research underlying this database has been significantly improved by valuable contributions of Giovanna De Francesco, Sofia Baranello and Rosa Maria Sava. Through thesis and internship activities, it also involved the participation of Alessandra Bachiorri, Giorgio Bonavita, Gabriele Di Iorio, Alessandra Gaspari, Francesco Lo Muto, Lorenzo Rosati, Elisa Sulsenti, Benedetta Trotta.

Knowing the location, the extent and the characteristics of any earthquake-induced environmental phenomena is becoming an increasingly pressing need for civil protection agencies and local administrations. In particular, earthquake-triggered landslides may cause significant losses and may delay rescue operations across large areas.

The CFTIlandslides was designed as "work in progress", and as such it is open to later additions and improvements in future releases. This first version of the database features over 1,000 landslides, subdivided into classes based on location accuracy and type of movement. It is addressed to a large audience of potential users, including researchers and scholars, administrators and technicians belonging to local institutions, and civil protection authorities.

With the exception of the data provided by third parties via web services, for each of which the reader must refer to the specific user license indicated in the legend, all data of the CFTIlandslides are offered with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license requires that any reutilization of data from this database must give the necessary credit to the authors

DISCLAIMER

The CFTIlandslides was designed as "work in progress", and as such it is open to later additions and improvements. For these reasons and due to its intrinsic nature of repository of information on complex natural phenomena, it cannot be guaranteed to be complete, accurate and updated in any part, and will be subjected to successive revisions. Although the authors make every effort to supply the best available information on the historical earthquake-induced landlides contained in it, no warranty, expressed or implied, is provided as to the accuracy and reliability of all the data supplied.

Users are cautioned to consider carefully the nature of the information supplied by this database before using it for decisions that concern personal and public safety, or in relation with business involving substantial financial or operational consequences.

Any conclusions drawn from this database, or actions undertaken on the basis of its contents, are the sole responsibility of the user.

Part of the activities of data rewiew about earthquake-induced effects on natural environment of CFTI5Med has been supported by a grant from Italy’s Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri-Dipartimento della Protezione Civile. Nevertheless, the views and conclusions reported in the CFTIlandslides are the sole responsibility of its authors, and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Dipartimento della Protezione Civile.