Long-Term Monitoring of Landslide Displacements and Damage at Latronico, Italian Apennines

Like many villages of the Italian Apennines, Latronico is constructed on a huge landslide system which causes severe damage to the entire inhabited zone. Continuous reinforcement works, and even demolition and reconstruction of the most damaged structures are continuously being performed, with high social and private costs. This paper presents the results of a long-term monitoring of the displacements carried out by in situ (mobile and fixed-in-place inclinometers and theodolite) and remote sensors (ERS, ENVISAT, COSMOSkyMed satellites) showing that the landslide system has been moving over the last 25 years with almost constant average yearly rates. The movements in correspondence of the inhabited area occur with rates of several cm/yr along a system of shallow and deep slip surfaces in the range 20 m–40 m depth. The stabilization interventions (shallow and deep drainage, retaining works, reshaping) have had in practice no effects on the general kinematics over the monitoring time. The analysis of the displacement field allows: (a) the localization of the zones of largest deformations and greatest risk for the inhabited area, (b) the identification of the most active triggers and (c) the evaluation of the effects on the displacement rate of the main remedial works.