A novel and intriguing problem today is to account for the influence on slope movements of ongoing climate changes, which in the long-term could play a crucial role.
A new study recently published on Landslides by a team of scientists (among them, the CMCC researchers Edoardo Bucchignani and Paola Mercogliano from ISC Division) proposes a methodology based on the coupling of climatic scenarios and geotechnical analyses accounting for the potential changes in climate parameters.

The abstract of the paper:

Today, a stimulating debate involves the scientific community about the impact of presumable future climate changes on the human life. One of the main question marks concerns their effects on hydrological hazards. Unfortunately, often such a debate is not based on reliable data. The paper proposes a methodology based on the coupling of climatic scenarios and geotechnical analyses accounting for the potential changes in climate parameters. Some analyses have been carried out to forecast the future behaviour of a slow landslide in clay. According to the adopted model, local climate effects should cause a slow decrease in the displacement rate.

Read the integral version of the paper:
Comegna L., Picarelli L., Bucchignani E., Mercogliano P.
Potential effects of incoming climate changes on the behaviour of slow active landslides in clay
2013, Landslides, Volume 10, Issue 4, pp 373-391, DOI: 10.1007/s10346-012-0339-3