On 9 October 1963 a catastrophic landslide suddenly occurred on the
southern slope of the Vaiont dam reservoir. A mass of approximately
270 million m3 collapsed into the reservoir generating a wave that
overtopped the dam and hit the town of Longarone and other villages
nearby. Several investigations and interpretations of the slope collapse
have been carried out during the last 45 years, however, a comprehensive
explanation of both the triggering and the dynamics of the phenomenon
has yet to be provided.
In order to re-evaluate the currently existing information on the
slide, an electronic bibliographic database and an ESRI-geodatabase
have been developed. The chronology of the collected documentation
showed that most of the studies for re-evaluating the failure mechanisms
were conducted in the last decade, as a consequence of knowledge,
methods and techniques recently acquired. The current contents of
the geodatabase will improve definition of the structural setting
that influenced the slide and led to the the propagation of the displaced
rock mass.
The objectives, structure and contents of the e-bibliography and Geodatabase
are indicated, together with a brief description on the possible
use of the alphanumeric and spatial contents of the databases.