The type of vegetation as a driver for the suscetibility to landslide in the Madeira island: the case of Tabua watershed

Abstract

The management of flash floods on the Madeira Island is one of the big challenges that such territory is facing on modern days concerning spatial planning. In addition to natural susceptibility, resultant from the combination of a complex topography and a strongly irregular annual precipitation pattern, land use deeply contributed to reinforce vulnerability to such natural disasters. Deep disturbance of native vegetation by human activities and the location of urban areas at the terminal section of streams deeply contributed to such situation, contributing intensely to economic losses and human fatalities, such as those registered throughout the historical occupation of the island. Such negative impacts are partly determined by the fact that such flash floods are associated to heavy transportation of solid material, fed by landslides. This work aims to evaluate the role of different types of vegetation on the control of susceptibility to the occurrence of landslides using by reference the watershed of the Tabua creek.