Accepted version for publication (post print) The original or published publication is available at http://qjegh.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/43/4/403 Reference to be cited: Polemio, M., and Petrucci, O., 2010, Occurrence of landslide events and the role of climate in the twentieth century in Calabria, southern Italy: Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, v. 43(4), 403-415. Occurrence of landslide events and the role of climate in the twentieth century in Calabria, Southern 1 Italy 2 3 M. Polemio* (1), O. Petrucci, (2) 4 (1) CNR-IRPI, Dept. of Bari, Italy, CNR-IRPI, Dept. of Cosenza, Italy (2). 5 e-mail: m.polemio@ba.irpi.cnr.it 6 number of words of text 7670 7 number of references 46 8 number of tables 4 9 number of figures 6 10 abbreviated title: Landslides and climate in Southern Italy 11 12 Abstract 13 A methodological approach based on analysing landslides that occurred over a long period and 14 climatic data characterising that period is presented. The method investigates whether there are any 15 effects of climate on landslide triggering. The approach has been tested in Calabria (Italy). Both 16 landslide and climatic data have been obtained from available databases that have been expanded. 17 Landslide data came from historical archives and newspapers, while the climatic analysis is based 18 on daily and monthly series of rainfall and temperature. The method simplifies the comparative 19 analysis of several time series by defining some indices (the monthly, bi-monthly, and … m- 20 monthly indices of precipitation, temperature, wet days and precipitation, and the monthly landslide 21 number) that can be used to study phenomena, such as landslides, that are characterised by spatial 22 and temporal variability. 23 For Calabria, the number of landslides is correlated to monthly precipitation, wet days and 24 precipitation intensity. Thus, landslide occurrence could be roughly forecasted using these climatic 25