In Italy, rainfall-induced shallow landslides are frequent and harmful phenomena. The
prediction of their occurrence is of social significance for civil protection purposes. For the
operational prediction of rainfall-induced shallow landslides empirical rainfall thresholds
based on the statistical analysis of past rainfall conditions that triggered slope failures are
commonly used. The paper describes a catalogue of 1981 rainfall events, which caused 2408
shallow landslides in Italy in the period 1996–2012. Information on rainfall-induced landslides
was collected searching chiefly online newspaper archives, blogs, and fire brigade reports. For
each documented failure, we reconstructed the triggering rainfall conditions (rainfall duration
D and cumulated rainfall E) using national and regional rain gauge networks. We analysed the
rainfall conditions to determine new ED rainfall thresholds for Italy. The calculated thresholds
can be implemented in a landslide forecasting system to mitigate landslide hazard and risk