## 2 I-Pro MONALISA: A New Semiautomatic GIS Approach  
Vulnerability assessment, meant as detection of the potential physical losses induced by ground movements, represents a basic step in landslides risk quantification activities. According to the glossary of risk-assessment terms of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, physical vulnerability refers to the degree of loss of a given element or set of elements within the area affected by the landslide hazard.  
Nowadays, no standard methodology for vulnerability assessment exists: Different approaches to assess vulnerability of exposed elements, associated to landslide processes, have been described in literature [25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34], each one characterized by its own peculiarity, obviously with differences in the final results.  
Consequences can be expressed quantitatively and qualitatively. A quantitative approach can estimate the expected degree of loss to a given exposed element by using a numeric rating scale ranging from 0 (no loss) to 1 (total loss), while the qualitative approach is based on the experience of experts and the use of terms as \"low, moderate, high\", thus it can include potentially subjective description of the likelihood term.  
In this paper, dealing with a large-area analysis, at small scale of representation (up to 1:25,000), we propose a qualitative vulnerability matrix which, combining landslide kinematic and damage severity, can be used as an initial screening process to identify, very quickly, sections along linear infrastructure, with different levels of vulnerability.  
The matrix-based approach [27; 35; 36; 37] is the most practical one as a basis for spatial analyses, where different vulnerability levels can be detected as changes in the classes within the matrix. Vulnerability matrices represent a useful tool in cases of limited data for the identification of the most critical areas where more detailed analysis is required. However, operator-dependency of the method is very high: The assessment of damage severity degree, in fact, may be different among experts. The popularity of vulnerability matrices is based on the qualitative nature of results and the use of expert judgement to evaluate empirical data. For this reason, repeatability and comparison possibilities of results in different contexts are limited.  
The approach here proposed is developed according to the flowchart shown in Figure 1: It is based on a logical structure which takes into account the vulnerability key factors: The movement kinematics and the characterization of the exposed elements.  
To characterize landslide kinematics, knowledge of landslide inventory mapping, including location, boundary, and state of activity, has been taken into account, while the surveying and classification of landslide-induced damage level can be used as a convenient indicator of performance of road superstructure.  
The following four main steps were implemented in an open source semiautomatic GIS routine, a key tool to facilitate the input, storage, analysis, integration, and output of spatial data which can help a real time decision making and strategic planning for effective risk management.