Collecting data to define future hazard scenarios of the Tessina landslide

Abstract Research has been carried out within the framework of the RUNOUT project to define future hazard scenarios of the Tessina Landslide and to determine whether the slide can be related to hydrogeological factors or deep tectonic structures/discontinuities. The work consisted mainly of mapping the geology and geomorphology, collecting meteorological, hydrological and kinematic data, and data modelling. We describe the monitoring system installed on the Tessina landslide and the analyses of data acquired since the start of RUNOUT, a project funded by the EC. Our main goal was to support the group doing the modelling by providing measurements of the principal parameters, such as displacements, groundwater level variations, rainfall, etc., for improving the models used to simulate the behaviour of the landslide and forecast the risk scenarios for the villages. We discuss the critical phase of September-October 1998 and propose a possible future geomorphological evolution of the landslide based on analysis of this data. The second goal was to focus the monitoring on maintaining an alarm system for the safety of the population threatened by the landslide.