Landslides increase due to climate change and fires

The rockslide Thursday morning at Navagio beach, a popular tourist destination on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, has alarmed authorities. Although there were no injuries, the incident caused by a 5.4-magnitude earthquake highlighted increasing landslides in Greece, linked to more rainfall and climate change.

“In general, in the last decade there has been an increase in landslide incidents attributed to the intensity of weather phenomena due to climate change,” said Dionysis Goutis, director general of the Hellenic Survey of Geology and Mineral Exploration.

“The areas where landslides occur most are those where geological conditions facilitate them: Evrytania, mountainous Thessaly, Epirus, Ilia, Achaia and Evia.

In Ilia and Evia, landslides have also been affected by major fires which have led to the loosening of the soil. There are, of course, cases where landslides are increasing due to human intervention,” he added.