Cultural heritage sites can be affected by landslides, often causing damage to their integrity, value, and accessibility. Several studies worldwide were focused on the assessment of the potential threats that landslides can pose to the preservation of cultural heritage sites. This article aims to review landslide studies at cultural heritage sites worldwide, analyzing the publications’ temporal distribution, selected methods, geographical and climate contexts, and investigated landslide types. We analyzed a database of 331 publications from 2000 to 2023 in study areas distributed across 47 countries, compiled through systematic queries of the Web of Science and Scopus catalogs. The results show an increase in the number of publications from 2012 onwards, with most studies performing landslide susceptibility analyses on cultural heritage sites. The majority of the studies deployed a geomorphological approach address slope instability mechanisms that threaten site integrity, with a significant number of publications presenting model-based, multidisciplinary and engineering geological approaches. Europe, North America, and Asia and the Pacific concentrate the majority of studies, with Italy and China having the highest number of case studies. The threats to cultural heritage sites located in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa are the least studied. Block slides, earth slides, and rock falls are the most studied processes, with fewer studies dealing with other landslide types.

Landslides pose severe hazard to populations and infrastructure in Brazil, with a notable recurrence in the South and Southeast coast, characterized by mountainous reliefs and high annual rainfall. In February 2023, the north coast of the São Paulo State experienced an extreme rainfall event that triggered hundreds of landslides, resulting in 46 deaths and thousands of affected. This article objective was to prepare a landslide inventory of this event for the two areas more intensely affected by landslides. We evaluated the morphological and land use characteristics of the affected areas, as well as the landslide susceptibility depicted in official maps and population density of affected areas. Landslide mapping was performed with an object-based Random Forest algorithm. The inventory achieved high accuracy (0.871 for sensitivity; 0.986 specificity) and a total area of 1.91 km² was affected by landslides, with 496 initiation points identified. Most initiation points (238) are located in areas previously mapped as highly susceptible, associated with forest formations. Landslides were triggered mainly on slopes with angle from 27º to 30º and topographic wetness index between 3.5 and 5.5. Initiation points occurred in areas with less than 100 people/km², but runout and deposition zones reached densely populated areas (> 1000 people/km²). We conclude that, despite most landslides were initiated in forested areas, correctly identified in previous maps as highly susceptible, the runout zone reached lower susceptibility areas. This finding highlights the necessity for spatially-explicit hazard maps in Brazil that indicate the potential landslide trajectory, as a tool to support efficient risk mitigation policies.

Escorregamentos rasos são processos naturais recorrentes na região das escarpas da Serra do Mar, no sudeste do Brasil, que podem configurar riscos para a sociedade caso estas encostas sejam ocupadas. O objetivo deste artigo foi comparar o desempenho da análise de suscetibilidade a escorregamentos rasos utilizando parâmetros morfométricos e os modelos SHALSTAB e Valor Informativo. A área de estudo foi a bacia do rio Gurutuba, no município de Itaoca (São Paulo), selecionada devido à grande quantidade de escorregamentos rasos deflagrados após chuvas intensas em 2014. A comparação entre os modelos foi feita utilizando a taxa de sucesso e a matriz de contingência. O modelo do Valor Informativo apresentou melhor desempenho, classificando as áreas instáveis mais de acordo com o inventário de cicatrizes, enquanto o modelo SHALSTAB indicou como instáveis zonas sem ocorrência de cicatrizes. Estes resultados são relevantes para o planejamento da região, que não possui estudos deste tipo.

Os modelos matemáticos possuem potencial para estimar e constatar áreas suscetíveis a processos erosivos. O SIMWE (Simulated Water Erosion) considera as propriedades hidrológicas e do solo, simula a erosão, o transporte e a deposição pelo fluxo superficial. O objetivo principal deste artigo foi avaliar a dinâmica das taxas de erosão e deposição a partir da aplicação do modelo SIMWE na bacia do Alto Espraiado, São Pedro (SP), que apresenta expressivas feições erosivas laminares e lineares. Foram analisados a influência dos parâmetros utilizados na geração de quatro cenários, o mapeamento das feições erosivas numa perspectiva histórica e a validação com o Índice Potencial de Erosão. O produto apresentou maior área associada à deposição, entre 65% e 77%, e à erosão, entre 23% e 36%. O registro de parte significativa das feições erosivas é expresso espacialmente por “caminhos ou rotas” dos fluxos superficiais. O SIMWE demonstrou resultados satisfatórios para identificar setores erosivos e deposicionais, sendo uma importante ferramenta para o diagnóstico e prognóstico de áreas complexas, marcadas pela dinâmica desses processos.