Not just Niscemi: the risk of landslides affects many areas in Italy and overall floods, avalanches, and coastal erosion affect 94.5% of municipalities and nearly 6 million citizens.
In 2024, the area at risk in the country increased by 15% compared to 2021 and the territories most affected are in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (+61.2%), Tuscany (+52.8%), Sardinia (+29.4%), Sicily (+20.2%).
According to updated data from the ISPRA Inventory of Landslides in Italy (IFFI), landslides have exceeded 684,000 and pose a threat to nearly 1.3 million people, equal to 2.2% of the population, and more than 742,000 buildings.
"Landslides occur in hilly or mountainous areas, such as the Apennines and the Alps, and vary in size and speed," explains Giuseppe Esposito of the National Research Council's Institute for Hydrogeological Protection. One in three cases (33%) occurs through landslides, as in Niscemi, or through slow-flowing flows (18.3%), common in the Emilian Apennines, Basilicata, and Liguria.
Rapid-flowing landslides, typically triggered by heavy rainfall on clayey soil, are not uncommon (12.1%). They are destructive, such as those that occurred in Sarno and Quindici in 1998, or in Valtellina in 1987, and those recorded in Liguria, Umbria, Piedmont, Tuscany, and Molise. According to data from the ISPRA Report presented last July, Italy remains among the European countries most exposed to landslide risk: 28% of them have "extremely rapid dynamics and a high destructive potential," including for human lives. According to the Hydrogeological Planning (HPP), the area at risk has increased from 55,400 square kilometers in 2021 to 69,500 in 2024, equal to 23% of the national territory.
According to the analysis, 5.7 million people in Italy lived in high-risk areas in 2024; over 582,000 families, 742,000 buildings, nearly 75,000 local businesses, and 14,000 cultural assets were at risk in the areas most at risk from landslides.
An ISPRA platform, IdroGeo, allows citizens, even from their smartphones, "to check the risks affecting their area by searching for an address or geolocating themselves on a map, thus identifying the level of danger for landslides and floods within a 500-meter radius of the point of interest (home, economic or productive activity)."
