Landslides in a multi-hazard context

Abstract

Landslides and other hazards are components of natural systems and thus are often related to each other. Since these relationships may result in unexpected effects, an approach to account for these relationships in a regional multi-hazard study is proposed. Subdivided into relations concerning disposition alteration and hazard chains in which one process triggers another process, the hazard links are identified and studied by means of GIS-based methods. Two techniques are used for the implementation of relations into the analysis procedure, the establishment of feedback loops and the overlay of hazard areas to determine overlaps. Such a regional analysis enables in the first place the definition of those areas possibly affected by unexpected effects due to hazard relations and indicates the spots to be studied in detail by local and detailed methods to quantify the potential consequences. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.