Ricerc@Sapienza

Tectonically active landscapes are dynamic systems which record the effects of geological processes acting on Earth interior and Earth surface processes. In such environments, threshold conditions on hillslopes are often reached, with considerable implications for natural hazards. Although there is a wide literature on landslide erosion in tectonically active regions, especially for what concerns earthquake-induced impulsive landslides, only few works focused on time-dependent rock mass deformations (Mass Rock Creep, MRC) which can evolve into massive rock slope failures (i.e. rock avalanches). The temporal evolution of such progressive deformation into failure may be accelerated by external forcing, such as earthquakes, so that the risk associated to this kind of phenomena should be better referred to as a "dynamic risk", which is variable in space and time. Multi-scale landscape evolution modelling represents a useful tool for constraining the rates of erosion/deposition dynamics in tectonically active regions. Aim of this project is to define the role of landscape evolution rates in the development of MRC deformations and their evolution into massive rock slope failures. An already tested multi-modelling approach, which includes morpho-evolutionary tasks, will be implemented in selected case studies and improved with numerical Landscape Evolution Models (LEMs), as better inputs for numerical, time-dependent stress-strain numerical modelling of slope stability. Such an objective will be achieved with the contribution and expertise by a geomorphological team from Sapienza and with the international collaborations with the University of Sevilla and Potsdam, respectively for what concerns: i) the structural analysis and the definition of the tectonic evolution of selected morpho-structures; ii) the implementation of multi-scale LEMs.