Landslide Inventory at 1:10,000 Scale in Poland: Benefits and Dilemmas of a National Project

Damages related to landslides triggered by extreme rainfall in southern Poland in 1997 pointed to a vital need for an improved system of data acquisition, natural hazard awareness building and developing mitigation measures. After several years of struggle and compelled changes in legislative acts, a national landslide inventory project was launched in 2008. This project, known as the Landslide Counteracting System (SOPO in Polish) is meant to provide support in the field of environmental protection and public safety as well as mass movement mitigation. The end-users of the project are administrative bodies, environmental protection inspectorates as well as non-governmental organizations acting in the area of constructing works, transportation, estate and property trade and education-research activities. The first stages of the project implementation involved pilot surveying and database testing and were followed by a systematic landslide inventory, starting from the most threatened municipalities in the Polish flysch Carpathians. Over 12,000 landslide bodies have been already recorded in the Polish Carpathians. The updated landslide prone areas in examined municipalities are unquestionable advantages of the project but this outcome was not appreciated by local communities, property owners or policy makers.