Climate as an Integral Synthesizer in Development-Reactivation Processes of Landslide and Diagnostic Criterion of Its Evaluation

Abstract

Landslide processes in South Caucasus region are developed in all landscape-geomorphological and geotectonic zones—beginning from platform shore ending with alpine orogenic. About 20 % of all territory is in the area of landslide risk. Economical loss delivered by them is incommensurately high for the population of the region and stability (especially for strategic, linear) of engineering objects. Under conditions of background development of landslide processes in the region the loss, delivered to economic of the region is determined by several tens of millions USD, and in case of their extreme activity, the loss frequently exceeds billions. At present about 53 thousand of sliding-gravitational objects are observed in Georgia. In general, 90 % of more than 60,000 of eco-migrations within the last 40 years are connected to landslide events and geologic elements. Over 80 % of heterogenic multi-palette landslides, developed in South Caucasus is provoked by climate factors. This problem needs to be paid a special attention in such regions of complex geologic processes, such as South Caucasus, where in multi-spectral landscape-geographic environment all zones are distinguished beginning from shore ending with highland alpine-nival zone, with climate from humid subtropical to arid climate and also there is observed significant plane-zonal metrological change of meteorological elements. All of them are distinguished with typical geological processes; regime, density and quality of activity of these processes is changed in corresponding observational conditions of geologic environment with process provoking meteorological elements (atmospheric precipitations, humidity etc.), with deviation from average long-term norms.