Set up of a monitoring network for the assessment of the effectiveness of innovative mitigation strategies

Filippo Tommaso Catelan¹, Angelo Ballaera¹, Giulia Bossi¹ & Gianluca Marcato^1
1CNR IRPI, Corso Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padova, Italy.
Corresponding author e-mail: filippo.tommaso.catelan@irpi.cnr.it

Landslides are a significant natural hazard, causing yearly fatalities and economic losses globally. The frequency of landslides is increasing worldwide, particularly in developing countries, where investment in mitigation strategies is limited. Furthermore, the rise in extreme rainfall events due to climate change is making the future evolution of these trends more worrysome. As more people worldwide settle in previously untouched foothills, hills, and mountainous regions, the risk of slope movement and related fatalities increases. Additionally, many structures designed to mitigate landslides are deteriorating, reducing their effectiveness in preventing such disasters. Therefore, exploring and trialing new and cost- effective mitigation strategies is imperative. This study presents the monitoring system that has been installed to quantify the effectiveness of an innovative landslide mitigation project implemented in Passo della Morte (North-East, Italy). The landslide is 2.1 x 106 m3 in volume and it is crossed by a national road called SS52 “Carnica” in the Eastern Alps of crucial importance for the region. The mitigation strategy aims to capture the spring water feeding the local torrent to tunnel the water away from the landslide and reduce the flank movement. By adopting this approach, the mitigation measures target the triggering factor of slope movement, increasing the chances of achieving substantial cost savings. A new monitoring system consisting of permanent GNSS, in-place inclinometers and Structural Health Monitoring devices such as crackmeters and clinometers has been deployed in the area. It will help quantify the mitigation measure’s effectiveness and confront the results with the forward model outputs. If the model results are validated, the case study will hold significant importance as the first example of this pipeline based on long-term monitoring associated with gray box modeling for the design of structural mitigation countermeasures.

landslide, monitoring system, mitigation strategy, long- term monitoring.