Landslides represent a major threat to human life, property and constructed facilities, infrastructure and natural environment in many European countries. As a consequence of climate change, and changes in demography and exposure in landslide-prone regions, the spatial and temporal patterns of landslide risk are expected to change significantly by the of this century. In areas with high population density, protection works often cannot be built because of economic or environmental constraints, and is it not always possible to evacuate people because of societal reasons. Innovative landslide risk mitigation measures and involvement of stakeholders in the decision making process for risk mitigation are essential in developing effective strategies in dealing with the ever-changing risk pattern.

The changing pattern of hazard and risk, the need to protect people and property, the expected climate change and the reality for society in Europe to live with hazard and risk and the need to manage risk are the main themes for this session. These themes have been studied in the project SafeLand, a large, integrating research project initiated in the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme. The key findings of the SafeLand project, as well as other research projects addressing these themes, will be addressed in the session.