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Historical geospatial database for landslide analysis: the Catalogue of Landslide OCcurrences in the Emilia-Romagna Region (CLOCkER)

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Abstract

A review of the content, structure, accuracy, and completeness of the Catalogue of Landslide OCcurrences in the Emilia-Romagna Region (CLOCkER) is presented. CLOCkER is a historical database, designed and developed for all types of landslides in the hilly-mountain area of the Emilia-Romagna section of the Northern Italian Apennines. Historical data have been gathered through a collection of numerous sources, including technical reports, historical archives, scientific literature, and newspapers. The information obtained, which has been evaluated to assess its temporal precision and spatial accuracy, has been recorded in a catalogue consisting of a Database Management System (DBMS) linked to a geographical information system (GIS) interface. The catalogue presently includes 14,416 records of documented landslide occurrences, dating from Middle Ages up to the present. The catalogue is associated with a landslide inventory, continuously updated by the Geological Survey of the Emilia-Romagna Region, where information on the shape, typology, and state of activity of more than 80,000 landslides is included. Our assessment of catalogue quality reveals a satisfactory spatial accuracy and a level of completeness comparable with the theoretical target proposed in the literature for complete inventories. Outputs indicate that CLOCkER can be a reference example useful for other regional historical landslide catalogues. Such reference datasets are useful for a wide range of landslide assessment purposes and can provide practical assistance for stakeholders involved in both scientific and technical fields, forming the basis for landslide temporal trend reconstruction that is essential for landslide hazard evaluation at different spatial-temporal scales. CLOCkER is open access, freely available online.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions to the early versions of the manuscript. They significantly contributed to the quality of the present version of the paper. Authors are also grateful to Hazel Faulkner (Middlesex University, London, UK) for her very helpful English proof-reading. D. Piacentini acknowledges the Geological Survey of the Emilia-Romagna Region for supporting her academic research.

Funding

F. Troiani’s research is supported by the project “Topographic metrics and analysis of geomorphic markers for constraining the long-term landscape evolution of areas currently affected by intense denudational processes” funded by “Fondi d’Ateneo 2016 - Sapienza University of Rome”, P.I.: F. Troiani.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”. Via Cà le Suore 2/4, 61029, Urbino, Italy

    Daniela Piacentini

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    F. Troiani

  3. Geological Survey of Emilia-Romagna Region, Viale della Fiera, 8, 40127, Bologna, Italy

    Daniela Piacentini, G. Daniele & M. Pizziolo

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  1. Daniela Piacentini
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  2. F. Troiani
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  3. G. Daniele
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  4. M. Pizziolo
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Correspondence to Daniela Piacentini.

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Piacentini, D., Troiani, F., Daniele, G. et al. Historical geospatial database for landslide analysis: the Catalogue of Landslide OCcurrences in the Emilia-Romagna Region (CLOCkER). Landslides 15, 811–822 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-018-0962-8

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