Landslides triggered by heavy rainfall pose significant threats to human settlements and infrastructure in temperate and equatorial climate regions. This study focuses on the development of the Open Landslide Project (OLP), an open source landslide inventory aimed at facilitating geostatistical analyses and landslide risk management. Using a multidisciplinary approach and open source, multisatellite imagery data, more than 3000 landslides triggered by the extreme rainfall of autumn 2019 in northwestern Italy were systematically mapped. The inventory creation process followed well-defined criteria and underwent rigorous validation to ensure accuracy and reliability. The dataset’s suitability was confirmed through multivariate correlation and Double Pareto probably density function. The OLP inventory effectiveness in assessing landslide risks was proved by the development of a landslide susceptibility model using binary logistic regression. The analysis of rainfall and lithology revealed that regions with lower rainfall levels experienced a higher occurrence of landslides compared to areas with higher peak rainfall. This was attributed to the response of the lithological composition to rainfalls. The findings of this research contribute to the understanding and management of landslide risks in anthropized climate regions. The OLP has proven to be a valuable resource for future geostatistical analysis.

Landslide mapping techniques have had many improvements in recent decades, the main field of development has been on traditional cartographic techniques and to a lesser extent on indirect numerical cartography. As for Direct Numerical Cartography (DNC), only a few improvements have been made due to the complexity and economic cost of the new technologies. To meet this lack in DNC techniques GOGIRA (Ground Operative-system for GIS Input Remote-data Acquisition), a new system following the GIS (Geographic Information System) scheme, was developed. It is a suite of hardware and software tools, algorithms, and procedures for easier and cheaper DNC. Initial tests conducted on the Quincinetto landslide system (north-western Italy) demonstrated good results in terms of morphometric coherence and precision. A geomorphological map made with GOGIRA was compared with a highly detailed geomorphological map developed with modern tested methods. In conclusion GOGIRA proved to be a valid system for geomorphological DNC when applied to a complex landslide system, considering the early stage of developing results for linear and point mapping was excellent, as for polygonal elements more studies must be conducted to improve accuracy and precision.

Flood risk in Italy is a key aspect for the administrative authorities, from the national to the local level. This is especially true in Northern Italy, where the Po River, the most important river of the peninsula, and its river basin are located. In North-Western Italy, the Po Basin is described by numerous sub-basins, among which is the Tanaro River basin: here, in the last decades, floods have produced significant damage, causing an increased concern to local and regional administrations. The main goal of this study was to identify suitable sites for the construction of dams, having the function of retention basins, aiming to mitigate the flood risk in the Upper Tanaro Valley. First, using a qualitative approach, suitable sites were identified using available public data provided by regional administrations and field data obtained from geomorphological surveys, later elaborated in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. Several models were then produced using conventional methods to evaluate the hydrological characteristics of the study area and to assess the efficiency of each site in terms of flood water flow rate reduction: the performance was evaluated at control sections chosen in urban areas along the Upper Tanaro Valley. The results show that it is possible to find suitable locations for risk mitigation structures. These models also allowed for a rapid cost-effectiveness evaluation, which led to the definition of the best-performing site. The Upper Tanaro Valley case study here analyzed contributes to proving the importance of an integrated approach based on geomorphological, geo-hydrological, and hydraulic evaluations when dealing with the choice of a flood risk mitigation strategy.

In recent years, digital mapping systems have gained interest among geomorphologists thanks to the fast evolution of technology. However, a mapmaker still uses traditional cartographic supports as printed topographic maps, which need to be   subsequently digitalized. Every step adds an additional level of cartographic error, often difficult to quantify. A solution can be to map the landforms directly in digital format during the fieldwork through an ad hoc system.With the purpose of making a “native” numerical cartography, GOGIRA (Ground Operative-system for GIS Input Row-data Acquisition) has been realized. GOGIRA consists of a set of hardware and software tools to digitalize real-world geomorphological elements and obtain georeferenced shapefiles. It is currently composed by two devices for data acquisition: an Android App for data collection and a Python-based software for coordinate computation. The technologies have been chosen to be enough accurate but cheaper than already available topographic tools. Each device uses an “Arduino Nano” board and low expensive sensors like MPU6000 (3 axis accelerometer + 3 axis gyroscope) or BNO055 (3 axis accelerometer + 3 axis gyroscope + 3 axis magnetometer).GOGIRA has been tested in Aosta and Tanaro Valley, in North-Western Alps of Piedmont Region (Italy). The first case study was chosen in the context of the active monitoring of a complex landslide system close to an important highway that connects Italy, France and Swiss. It was possible to remotely (distance from 0.5 to 2.7 km from targets) map an area of limited access due to steep slopes, high scarps and rockfall hazard. Small single elements were mapped, as rockfall scarps not detectable from topographic support. The time for the survey has revealed to be short (a couple of hours included the search of a good observation point). The second case study was picked during the preliminary fieldwork for the realization of rolling tanks to mitigate the hydrologic hazard in the anthropized Tanaro Plain. The area has been investigated both with traditional methods and GOGIRA system, if morphometry allowed. Scarps, karst springs and debris/rock flow tracks were mapped.The results obtained from both the tests highlight complications in mapping polygonal elements regarding visibility and overlaying but show a particularly high reliability in collecting data on linear and punctual geomorphic elements.