Aspects of recent landslide research at the University of Wollongong

This paper introduces the issues which are of critical importance to landslide hazard and risk assessment and management. These include understanding of probability and consequence, the separation of the role of site-dependent factors from that of influencing/triggering natural events and the factors influencing target levels of risk. The research completed at the University of Wollongong is then outlined. This includes the development of an observational approach based on monitoring of subsurface movements at individual sites and appropriate use of rainfall data in terms of the concept of annual rainfall percentage exceedance time (ARPET). Attention is then focused on current research including the development of a hazard-consequence matrix approach for risk assessment at individual sites. Another important research task concerns the development and assessment of magnitude - cumulative frequency relationships for landslides in the study area.