Geological and geophysical tests to model a small landslide in the langhe hills

Abstract

In April 2009, North-West Italy was interested by heavy rainfalls that triggered several landslides, especially of shallow type, and caused relevant rise of water level in many rivers, in some cases even beyond the alert level. Particularly in the hills near Alba (NW Italy), many landslides occurred, most of them belonging to the debris flow or soil slip types. In this area, a small but interesting landslide involved a local road and a high quality, recently planted, vineyard. The present study shows the use of different disciplinary approaches focused to understand the behaviour of this landslide: in particular, besides geological and geomorphologic studies, detailed topographic and geophysical surveys together with an in situ geotechnical/geomechanic characterization were applied. The combined interpretation of the different techniques and of field observations allowed to define a geological and technical model of the landslide, both in surface than in depth, that clarified the triggering mechanism of the landslide and allowed to perform a back analysis on both strength and pore pressure parameters. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.