Geological and Environmental Sustainability

Geological Hazard Assessment

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It deals with several features of the assessment of hazard and risk of land sliding. In modern years the interest in this topic has increased greatly and there are many technical papers dealing with this subject in the literature. This article presents a summary review and a classification of the main approaches that have been developed world-wide. The first step is the part between qualitative and quantitative methods. The first group is mainly based on the site-specific experience of experts with the susceptibility/hazard determined directly in the field or by combining different index maps. The approaches of the second group are formally more rigorous.  It is possible to distinguish between statistical analyses (bivariate or multivariate) and deterministic methods that involve the analysis of specific sites or slopes based on geo-engineering models. Such analyses can be deterministic or probabilistic. Among the quantitative methods discussed is the Neural Networks approach which has only recently been applied to engineering geology problems. Finally several considerations concerning the concept of acceptable risk and risk management are presented. The seismic hazard is defines as the probabilistic measure of ground shaking associated to reappearance of earthquakes. Seismic hazard maps depicts the stages of chosen ground motions that likely will not, be exceeds in specified exposure times.