Landslide, risk analysis and spatial planning; example of recent Armamar sliding flow (Douro wine region, Portugal)

Abstract

A very important Portuguese northern road- E.N. 222- was destroyed on January the 3'", 60 m length, on all it's width, as the result o fa Newtonian debris movement of the material that structures the "socalcos", it means, the slopes of the Douro Wine Growing Region, between Peso da Régua and Pinhão. This landslide did not produce injuries, or even deaths, but has destroyed a significant par! Of the road, a very large area o f vineyard and the slope itself, beyond the big costs involved in the road and slope reconstruction and stabilization. The social and economics main derangements were evident for all, and they were a consequence of a very long alternative way that people had to go through for reaching any of those two villages. In this region, landslides, concretely, flow slides, are human induced phenomena and this one is just an example more, the recent one, that calls upon the consciousness for the magnitude of this kind o f problems. This behaviour constitutes a very important attribute in terms of an efficient land use and planning, and resources management that respects Physic s, so ... Nature' s laws.