Models for landslides induced by precipitation in Norway

This work summarizes the preliminary results of a post doc project between University of Calabria and Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI). The topic is the development of an integrated modeling to forecast rainfall fields and triggering mechanisms of landslides. The activities are organized in three research lines: (1) analysis and modeling of rainfall fields; (2) development of a modeling for landslide initiation; (3) integration between rainfall forecasting and landslide initiation models. The preliminary results reported in this paper are related to the second research line, which comprises: a) development of a physically and DEM based model at regional scale for triggering of landslides; b) integration with empirical/hydrological models for early warning purposes. Concerning the former activity, the study area, formed or not by different soil layers, has to be represented by a threedimensional grid of cells; the study of the effects induced by precipitation on slope stability has to be performed by using models of infiltration and runoff generation, coupled with a global stability analysis. The basic idea of this second activity is to test the feasibility of establishing relations between the results of empirical approaches, and the output of physically based models.