International Conference Mass movement hazard in various environments Cracow,  20-21 October 2005 more >>>

Any subsequent floods and catastrophic rainfalls worsen the situation. Landslides are rarer than floods and therefore they are easier to be erased from human memory. That is why houses and roads are often built on dangerous slopes where erosional processes concealed characteristic morphological features indicating ancient landslides. Moreover, soils on mountain slopes move down slowly so that this process is difficult for direct observations. When a landslide becomes rapidly active, it is usually too late to react.

Lachowice-Landslide:  the last major flood re-activated 20 thousand dormant landslides in the Carpathians

Landslide disaster results in considerable economic losses. Their total amount for years 2000-2001 was more than PLN 196 million in Małopolskie and Podkarpackie voivodships. But the social losses are difficult to be assessed; in many cases they are much greater than the economic losses: people lose their houses and possessions. People feel need to leave their homes and places which have appeared to be so dangerous.

The Carpathian Branch of the Polish Geological Institute has studied and monitored landslides for over 50 years. Specialists of the Branch possess the greatest knowledge on mountain slope stability necessary to recognize areas of danger. Landslide risk areas are shown in the Detailed Geological Map of Poland, scale 1:50.000.

Map of the landslides in the Polish Flysch Carpathians. Compiled from the documents of the PGI, updated for the end of 2000

Landslide risk assessment also includes construction of detailed geodynamic maps and preparation of reports on individual landslides to predict landslide development. The problem is so important that classical methods of field observations are no longer sufficient. More efficient systems, based on high-resolution satellite images and GSP location technologies, are being currently implemented. Collected data are stored in the digital Landslide Database managed by the Carpathian Branch of PGI.