Short-term prediction of rainfall-induced flow-like landslides in unsaturated granular soils

"Wide areas in the world are subjected to flow-like rainfall-induced landslides involving unsaturated granular or fine-grained non plastic soils. Due to high momentum determined by mass and velocity, these landslides can. destroy settlements and infrastructure causing loss of lives and goods. Still today, in 2012, the same international. community that conquered the Moon and Mars, is groping in the dark to find really effective tools for risk. mitigation. Accounting for the lack of clear signals of incoming slope failure and considering the high velocity that such soil masses can reach, in many cases the best way for risk mitigation is through early warning systems based on reliable procedures for landslide triggering prediction. The paper describes some tools for short-term landslide. prediction that are being investigated by a multidisciplinary team working at Seconda Università di Napoli, Italy."