Hydrogeological instabilities are defined as those processes ranging from slow erosion to more substantial degradation of surface and underground slopes up to the imposing and severe forms of landslides also including phenomena such as floods and avalanches.
The endless tide
In Italy the hydrogeological instability is partly natural, since the country has an high hydrogeological risk and partly is the poisoned fruit of decades in which the land has been systematically abused: an emergency always less exceptional and more and more happening on a daily basis.
3,671 municipalities are within a high risk, 45% of the total. Only in the last 10 years there have been 12,993 problematic hydrogeological events, including six catastrophic landslides and floods with at least 50 billion euros of damage.