The Brienz Landslide
The Insel compartment of the Brienz landslide complex failed in the night of 15 June 2023 - one month after the village had been evacuated.
Due to very high hazard and risk levels, the Brienz/Brinzauls landslide complex has been studied during the last years with unprecedented detail by many earth scientists and engineers.
On 22 August 2023, Prof. em. Simon Löw will give a talk that explains the current understanding of the geological predisposition and hazard scenarios, the expected and observed long-term displacement evolution, the early warning criteria and evacuation phases, and finally the collapse processes of the “Insel“ compartment. This unique case demonstrates the importance of process understanding for a successful management of potentially catastrophic slope failures, as well as the limitations of classical slope failure predictions models.
Prof. em. Löw has served as an expert consultant and researcher at Brienz/Brienzauls for many years and was a member of the geological advisory team during the recent crisis.