Wildfires and shallow landslides in urban areas: preliminary insights from the Mt. Mario case study (Rome, Italy)

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4. Wildfires and shallow landslides in urban areas: preliminary insights from the Mt. Mario case study (Rome, Italy)

The study of Mt. Mario landslide case lies within a collaboration agreement between ISPRA and the Civil Protection Department of the Municipality of Rome. For this site, the study is aimed at identifying the potential failure kinematics and predisposing/triggering factors as well as setting up an early warning monitoring system of the potential shallow landslides that could develop in the soil covers of the slope, following rainfall events. Indeed, evidence of shallow landslides was observed after intense rainfalls and severe wildfires that affected many trees on the studied slope. In-situ geognostic and freatimetric monitoring campaign as well as geophysical surveys and hydro-mechanical laboratory tests are in progress in order to predispose the geological and geotechnical model of the area. For this paper, some preliminary numerical modelling has been carried out to infer the potential effect of the vegetation roots decay and of the presence of ash on the ground surface on the hydro-mechanical behaviour of the slope during the rainfall events which were deemed to be the main triggering factor of the landslide phenomena. Modelling results show that a low hydraulic conductivity in the hypothetically bare slope limited rainfall infiltration and avoided instability. The higher hydraulic conductivity generated by roots growth and decay was compensated by the additional soil cohesion in the slope with hypothetically living vegetation: this combination ensured stability. Instability was instead observed when reducing the cohesion, assuming vegetation's death.

3rd International Workshop on Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Interaction (RootS2025)

2c. Numerical modelling of the behaviour of rooted soils and boundary value problems under static and dynamic loading conditions