Over 1 billion euros in damage, 10 victims, 18 injured and almost 1,700 people who had to abandon their homes: these are the numbers recorded in 2023 on Italian territory contained in the Periodic Report on the risk posed to the Italian population by landslides and floods, presented to the National Academy dei Lincei by Fausto Guzzetti, of the Research Institute for Hydrogeological Protection of the National Research Council (Cnr).
"Every year in Italy landslides cause victims and direct damage amounting to over 1 billion euros. A significant figure but little is done to limit the damage caused by landslides", underlined Guzzetti presenting the data in a meeting held at the Lincei.
Italy is a particularly fragile territory whose historical data are collected on the Polaris site of the Cnr and from which it can be observed that between 1973 and 2022 the landslides, often small but no less dangerous, caused 1087 victims including dead and missing , over 1400 injured and over 140,000 evacuated and homeless people in over 2600 locations in 1541 Municipalities.
"In the collective memory - continued Guzzetti - only four large landslides come to mind: Vajont, Vietri, Stava and Sarno. Each of them had more than one hundred deaths, but it is the many small landslides that cause the major and persistent problems".
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