Study of the groundwater regime in unsaturated slopes prone to landslides by multidisciplinary investigations: Experimental study and numerical modelling

The triggering of shallow landslides in granular deposits is highly controlled by the groundwater regime, namely, the pore water pressure distribution, which directly affects soil shear strength. The slope hydraulic state is usually variable over time and space due to the high variability of atmospheric loads at the ground surface and local geologic conditions, such as stratigraphic irregularities and preferential groundwater flow paths. The unfavourable combination among critical geomorphological and topographical settings with stratigraphic and hydrogeological features are commonly recognized as predisposing factors of flowslides and debris flow occurrences.