Reconstruction of the conditions that initiate landslide movement in weathered silty clay terrain: effects on the historic and architectural heritage of Pietrapertosa, Basilicata, Italy

Understanding the causes of slope development, particularly the initiation of movement, requires knowledge of a set of factors (usually associated with groundwater) that are often difficult to determine. To perform a back-analysis of the failure conditions of the silty-clay terrains underlying the monastery of San Francis, which was built on the slope of the Valle della Torre, at Pietrapertosa (Potenza), the slope was analyzed by means of a limit-equilibrium approach, to determine the stability coefficient (F _s) in relation to the pore water pressure regime. It has been possible to apply linear regression to establish a relation between rainfall and fluctuations of the water table in long duration records of both and thus to obtain the amount of rainfall that is likely to correspond to the critical value of the piezometric level at which the weathered silty-clay material will fail. In this way, the difficulty of applying the various simulations that define the complex relationships between water infiltration and water table recharge has been avoided. In the study area, the hydrological behavior of the 12-m thick weathered horizon has been represented by flow lines, which, in section, are equipotential lines parallel to the slope.