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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Effect of climate change on landslide behaviour

subject

description

Landslides represent a major threat to human life, constructed facilities and infrastructure in most mountainous regions of the world. Considering future climate scenarios and modified precipitation patterns, the landslide activity will most probably change too. It is expected that shallow slips and debris flows will take place more frequently as a consequence of more extreme weather events. For the local scale of Switzerland for example, there is no increasing trend visible for the total rainfall amount, but an increasing tendency is observed for stormy events and their intensity, especially in fall, spring and winter. Some precipitation is expected to fall as rain instead of snow at higher altitudes. As a consequence, the occurrence of shallow landslides in steep mountainous slopes will increase. At higher elevations, climate change will continue affecting glaciers and permafrost soils substantially. Glacial retreat and the melting of permafrost will cause more landslides, debris flows and rock falls to occur.