This paper deals with the use of time-series of High-Resolution Digital Elevation Models (HR DEMs) obtained from photogrammetry and airborne LiDAR coupled with aerial photos, to analyse the magnitude of recently reactivated large scale earth slides – earth flows located in the northern Apennines of Italy. The landslides underwent complete reactivation between 2001 and 2006, causing civil protection emergencies. With the final aim to support hazard assessment and the planning of mitigation measures, high-resolution DEMs are used to identify, quantify and visualize depletion and accumulation in the slope resulting from the reactivation of the mass movements. This information allows to quantify mass wasting, i.e. the amount of landslide material that is wasted during reactivation events due to stream erosion along the slope and at its bottom, resulting in sediment discharge into the local fluvial system, and to assess the total volumetric magnitude of the events. By quantifying and visualising elevation changes at the slope scale, results are also a valuable support for the comprehension of geomorphological processes acting behind the evolution of the analysed landslides.

The hydrogeological characteristics of roto-translational slides in flysch are complex, due to the inherent anisotropy and heterogeneity of rock masses and related deposits. The paper deals with the hydrogeological characterization of a reactivated roto-translational slide affecting Cretaceous flysch rocks, located in the northern Apennines of Italy. Continuous monitoring of groundwater levels, in-situ permeability and pumping tests, hydrochemical and physical analyses and Uranine tracers were the adopted prospecting methods. In this research hydrological monitoring and investigation are summarized in order to define a hydrogeological conceptual model of the landslide source area. Results showed that two overlaying hydrogeological units exist at the slope scale: the first is unconfined, but highly compartmentalized, and hosted in the fractured and dismembered rock slide body. The second is confined and lays in the undisturbed flysch below the sliding surface. The groundwater level in the confined hydrogeological unit is twenty meters higher than the groundwater level in the uppermost one. Moreover, the groundwater chemistry characterization revealed a rising of deep fluids in the landslide area.