Rozwój badań osuwisk w Państwowym Instytucie Geologicznym

Abstract

Development of landslide research at the Polish Geological Institute.A b s t r a c t. The paper presents the history and latest achievements in landslide research at the Polish Geological Institute (PGI). Since the establishment of PGI in 1919, landslides have been investigated during geological mapping in the Carpathians and considered by engineering geologists. After the 2nd World War, the importance of landslide research becomes more and more important following each landslide catastrophic event. Since 2008, the research on landslide and mass movements has been carried out systematically at the PGI within the SOPO (Landslide Counteracting System) project framework. Since that time, the SOPO project has been developing from landslide mapping and recording into a large spatial database, a sophisticated monitoring system (including on-line data acquisition) and susceptibility analysis, and early warnings with prediction capabilities. SOPO plays an important role to local and national administration. Together with the legal component, it allows defining a strategy for landslide risk reduction in Poland. Recently, landslide research plays so important role at the PGI that a special department, called Geohazard Center, has been established within the PGI organizational structure.