Foreword 

Landslides represent a relevant problem for most of the countries overlooking the Mediterranean. This trivial consideration should prompt researchers, professionals, and stakeholders in this region to form closer relationships and engage themselves in a continuous exchange of data and ideas to find common strategies of landslide risk mitigation. A common problem concerns the stability of slopes and in particular stiff fissured clays and soft rocks, which are widespread all over the region, posing major problems to the development of these areas. It is evident that the behaviour of such a wide and complex class of materials, spreading across large areas in this corner of the world, cannot be interpreted simply through the basic laws of the Soil or Rock Mechanics. With the goal in mind of urging people living on the Mediterranean to join their efforts, we have organized the second Mediterranean Symposium on Landslides, hoping that this event will be an occasion to strengthen our scientific and technical knowledge's.