Human activity and damaging landslides and floods on Madeira Island

Over the last few decades, the island of Madeira has become an important offshore tourism and business center, with rapid economic and demographic development that has caused changes to the landscape due to human activity. In Madeira's recent history, there has been an increase over time in the...

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Main Author: D. Baioni
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2011-11-01
Series:Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
Online Access:http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/11/3035/2011/nhess-11-3035-2011.pdf
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spelling doaj-88536d6b8fd34f39b3b7466bd1dbf3322020-11-24T23:23:16ZengCopernicus PublicationsNatural Hazards and Earth System Sciences1561-86331684-99812011-11-0111113035304610.5194/nhess-11-3035-2011Human activity and damaging landslides and floods on Madeira IslandD. BaioniOver the last few decades, the island of Madeira has become an important offshore tourism and business center, with rapid economic and demographic development that has caused changes to the landscape due to human activity. In Madeira's recent history, there has been an increase over time in the frequency of occurrence of damaging landslide and flood events. As a result, the costs of restoration work due to damage caused by landslide and flood events have become a larger and larger component of Madeira's annual budget. Landslides and floods in Madeira deserve particular attention because they represent the most serious hazard to human life, to property, and to the natural environment and its important heritage value. <br><br> The work reported on in this paper involved the analysis of historical data regarding damaging landslide and flood events on Madeira (in particular from 1941 to 1991) together with data on geological characteristics, topographic features, and climate, and from field observations. This analysis showed that the main factor triggering the occurrence of damaging landslide and flood events is rainfall, but that the increase in the number of damaging events recorded on Madeira Island, especially in recent times, seems to be related mostly to human activity, specifically to economic development and population growth, rather than to natural factors.http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/11/3035/2011/nhess-11-3035-2011.pdf
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author D. Baioni
spellingShingle D. Baioni
Human activity and damaging landslides and floods on Madeira Island
Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
author_facet D. Baioni
author_sort D. Baioni
title Human activity and damaging landslides and floods on Madeira Island
title_short Human activity and damaging landslides and floods on Madeira Island
title_full Human activity and damaging landslides and floods on Madeira Island
title_fullStr Human activity and damaging landslides and floods on Madeira Island
title_full_unstemmed Human activity and damaging landslides and floods on Madeira Island
title_sort human activity and damaging landslides and floods on madeira island
publisher Copernicus Publications
series Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
issn 1561-8633
1684-9981
publishDate 2011-11-01
description Over the last few decades, the island of Madeira has become an important offshore tourism and business center, with rapid economic and demographic development that has caused changes to the landscape due to human activity. In Madeira's recent history, there has been an increase over time in the frequency of occurrence of damaging landslide and flood events. As a result, the costs of restoration work due to damage caused by landslide and flood events have become a larger and larger component of Madeira's annual budget. Landslides and floods in Madeira deserve particular attention because they represent the most serious hazard to human life, to property, and to the natural environment and its important heritage value. <br><br> The work reported on in this paper involved the analysis of historical data regarding damaging landslide and flood events on Madeira (in particular from 1941 to 1991) together with data on geological characteristics, topographic features, and climate, and from field observations. This analysis showed that the main factor triggering the occurrence of damaging landslide and flood events is rainfall, but that the increase in the number of damaging events recorded on Madeira Island, especially in recent times, seems to be related mostly to human activity, specifically to economic development and population growth, rather than to natural factors.
url http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/11/3035/2011/nhess-11-3035-2011.pdf
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