The Lorestan region is located in the western Zagros Mountains (Iran), one of the most spectacular examples of landscape evolution in response to active tectonics because its drainage network clearly adapted to the growth of the thrust-fold structures and to the erodibility of the outcropping lithologies.
As evidenced during my PhD study about the giant Seymareh landslide, recognized as one of the largest rock mass movements occurred on the Earth surface (the volume of its debris is about 44 Gm3), in the region the evolution of the Deep Seated Gravitational Slope Deformations (DSGSD) affected by Mass Rock Creep (MRC) process are closely connected to the drainage network evolution. For this reason, the applied metodology for the Seymareh landslide will be used as a reference for other selected case studies.
The here presented case studies include: i) the Loumar landslide; ii) the Murani landslide; and iii) the Malavi landslide.
All the gravitational instabilities are already occurred producing changes in the drainage system, identified as geomorphic markers of the evolution of each valleys both upstream and downstream of the landslide debris.
The plano-altimetric distribution of these markers (some of them dated with the Optically Stimulated Luminescence - OSL method) along the longitudinal profile of the river will provide time constrains to different stages of evolution of the failed slopes. The obtained reconstruction of the slope-valley system evolution will improve the accuracy of the definition of the multi-temporal hazard and the consequent time-dependent risk related to the multistage landslide evolution of the affected valleys, using a multi-modelling approach, incorporating contribution from landscape evolution and engineering-geological modelling.
In this context, therefore, fundings are requested in order to sample and date some geomorphic marker to refine the time-dependent risk scenarios linked to the aforementioned gravitational movements.
The research is part of the collaboration activities already underway in the context of the International Agreement that Sapienza University of Rome has stipulated with Kharazmi University of Teheran, thanks to whose contribution it will be possible to develop the following themes:
1) Enhancement in the knowledge about the contribution of MRC processes to landsliding;
2) Refinement of a multi-modelling approach that incorporates contributions from morpho-evolutionary modelling, numerical landscape evolution modeling, engineering-geological modelling, time-dependent stress-strain numerical modelling;
3) Definition of the more modern concept of "Dynamic Risk" (variable over time as well as in space) already applied to the Seymareh Landslide to other case studies.