Technical note: use of remote sensing for landslide studies in Europe

Within the framework of FP7, an EU-funded Safe- Land project, a questionnaire was prepared to collect infor- mation about the use of remote sensing for landslide study and to evaluate its actual application in landslide detection, mapping and monitoring. The questionnaire was designed using a Google form and was disseminated among end- users and researchers involved in landslide studies in Eu- rope. In total, 49 answers from 17 different European coun- tries were collected. The outcomes showed that landslide de- tection and mapping is mainly performed with aerial pho- tos, often associated with optical and radar imagery. Con- cerning landslide monitoring, satellite radars prevail over the other types of data. Remote sensing is mainly used for de- tection/mapping and monitoring of slides, flows and lateral spreads with a preferably large scale of analysis (1 : 5000– 1 : 25 000). All the compilers integrate remote sensing data with other thematic data, mainly geological maps, landslide inventory maps and DTMs and derived maps. According to the research and working experience of the compilers, remote sensing is generally considered to have a medium effective- ness/reliability for landslide studies. The results of the questionnaire can contribute to an over- all sketch of the use of remote sensing in current landslide studies and show that remote sensing can be considered a powerful and well-established instrument for landslide mapping, monitoring and hazard analysis.