Simulation of the Vajont landslide (Italy, 1963) by means of the UBO-BLOCK numerical code: the initial sliding body is marked by the colored scale; the black points mark the blocks trajectory; the red mesh reports the final position of the blocks representing the sliding mass.
Landslides are natural disasters that occur when large amounts of rock, soil, or debris move down a slope after being set in motion by different possible mechanisms. Triggering factors, with different weights in different geological and geomorphological contexts, include pure gravity, heavy rainfall, earthquake shaking, volcanic activity, deforestation, and human construction activities that destabilize the land. Landslides can cause significant damage to infrastructure, homes, and roads, posing a serious threat to human lives. In mountainous and hilly regions, they are especially common, often leading to loss of vegetation and altering the landscape. Preventive measures, such as proper land use planning, afforestation, and engineering solutions like retaining walls and drainage systems, can help reduce the risk of landslides and protect communities from their devastating effects. In WALL, landslides are treated in terms of both the setup of slope instability conditions and the numerical modelling of the dynamics of a landslide when it starts to move down a slope. Special attention will be devoted to rainfall and earthquakes as triggering mechanisms relevant to Rwanda. In the case of rainfall, the connection with changing climate conditions will be established, providing a tentative projection of the future variation of landslide susceptibility of the Rwandan territory