Research database

The main objective of the Spoke research is the tuning of advanced methods and procedures for reconstructing quantitative scenarios of ground instability (via probabilistic and/or deterministic approaches) caused by varying environmental conditions in subaerial, and submarine settings, including their impact on the infrastructures and settlements, from local to national scales. From the perspective of multiple risk analysis, the destabilizing role played by environmental stresses will be investigated considering both their combination as well as their cascading effects. Ground instabilities deemed as the primary object are: a) slope failures; b) sinkholes; c) subsidence/uplift caused by soil consolidation and liquefaction. The scale of the investigated processes ranges from local to regional, where paroxysms of greater proportions can evolve into extreme and catastrophic events, including debris avalanches and the morphodynamics of submarine canyons. For each type of ground instability, the present research aims at defining and parametrizing the role and related importance of three macrocategories of factors, which can be summarized as a) predisposing factors (geological, geomorphological and geomechanical); b) preparatory factors and processes (climatic action, channel and coastal dynamics and anthropogenic pressure); c) triggering factors (earthquakes, volcanic activity, intense rainfall, rapid snowmelt and anthropogenic activity).