ABSTRACT
In comparison with LDCs, the death toll from mass movements is low in most MDCs. In Italy – which has the highest fatality rate from slope failures in Europe – deaths average 60 per year, of which 48 occur in fast-moving events (Guzzetti, 2000). In the MDCs the losses are mostly economic. In the USA, Canada and India the estimated costs of landslides exceed US$1 billion per year (Schuster
and Highland 2001) whilst in Italy the direct damage caused by landslides in the period between 1945 and 1990 exceeded $15 billion. Indirect losses, which are poorly quantified, include damage to transport links, electricity transmission systems and gas and water pipelines, flooding due to landslide dams across rivers, impaired agricultural and industrial production, loss of trade and a reduction in property values.
