Citation

Gottardi G, Tonni L. Nat. Hazards Rev. 2003; 4(2): 71-77.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, American Society of Civil Engineers)

DOI

10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2003)4:2(71)

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The village of Corniglio in Italy has been affected for the last 6 years by a huge landslide, currently one of the largest slope movements in Europe, which has caused considerable socio-economic damage. In late 1994, the slope movement resumed after unusually high rainfalls in a preexisting landslide area that had been stable since 1902. The main landslide took place west of the old center of Corniglio, gradually involving an estimated 200,000,000 cubic meters of soil. The village itself initially did not experience any instability; however, the progressive extension of the main movement also later caused serious damage in the city center. Immediately after the movement's onset, a rather comprehensive and costly program of site investigation, careful monitoring, and geophysical surveying was planned and carried out. The substantial amount of collected data allowed a rather detailed stratigraphic profile to be developed and provided the geotechnical characterization of the complex soil formations involved in the slope movement. The stability analyses were focused on the old city center, where many reliable data are available and remedial measures could be required. Both the standard limit equilibrium and finite-difference methods were used and the relevant results compared. The analyses clearly show the need to take into account the close relationship between two slope movements; in particular, the possible reduction of earth support at the downhill boundary of the city center slope, as induced by the very large movements of the adjacent main landslide, was considered.