Holistic geoethical slope portfolio risk assessment

Abstract

Landslides of natural and man-made slopes represent hazardous geomorphological processes that contribute to highly variable risks. Their consequences generally include loss of life, infrastructural, environmental and cultural assets damages.Prioritizing and mitigating slope risks in a sustainable manner, while considering climate change, is related to geoethics as any misallocation of resources will likely lead to increased exposure of the public.Until recently there was little recognition of the causes and global impacts of human actions. Today threat denying humans can be identified as acting inappropriately and ultimately unethically. Sustainable Risk Management and ethical issues should be discussed simultaneously to avoid the “discipline-silo's trap” and hazardous omissions.This contribution discusses slopes risk management at various scales, how to ensure better allotment of mitigative funds while complying with sustainability goals and geoethic requirements. The World Commission on Environment and Development (also known as the Bruntdland, 1987 report) defined sustainable development as one meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.The three case histories discussed in this contribution show how sustainability and ethics can be fostered by using rational, repeatable, transparent quantitative risk assessment applicable at local as well as large scale.

Introduction: geoethics goes beyond the geoscience profession

“…Although there are geologic differences between managing groundwater and landslide risks, the need to have a more holistic approach is also the focus of the contribution by Oboni and Oboni (2020) We are asked to think about possible answers and, if we will not be able to find them, probably we should look toward the stars, so that in chapter 19, McLean (2020) proposes "the development of a set of reasoning tools in the form of principles and virtue to guide scientists, the public, and policy makers in creating an ethical framework to steer and constrain our reaching out from Earth …" "… allowing for prudent space exploration". But we don't need to prepare solid rocket boosters to escape from Earth to Mars or other planets.…”