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• Regional distributed stability modelling integrating the root reinforcement effect. • Long simulations considering regional hourly rainfall of one-month periods. • Root cohesion regional changes by species distribution and Monte Carlo simulations. • Minor influence of the root reinforcement when soil conditions are near saturation. We present a regionally distributed slope stability modelling for shallow landslides considering the effect of plant roots. Our modelling is based on the physically-based distributed slope stability model, HIRESSS (HIgh REsolution Slope Stability Simulator). Thanks to the parallel structure, our code is well suited to perform fast assessment of slope stability over large spatial and temporal scales. The reinforcing effect of plant roots is implemented into the code by considering the local plant species and their spatial variations. The probabilistic nature of the stability of slopes is considered by performing Monte Carlo simulations. Our model is applied to two study areas in Italy. The numerical results are compared with the collected data from these areas. The model predictions show that the effect of plant root is sensitive to rainfall intensity and duration. Our model prediction shows only minor influence of plant root on slope stability particularly for the soil conditions near saturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of vegetation on mechanical and hydrological soil behavior represents a significant factor to be considered in shallow landslides modelling. Among the multiple effects exerted by vegetation, root reinforcement is widely recognized as one of the most relevant for slope stability. Lately, the literature has been greatly enriched by novel research on this phenomenon. To investigate which aspects have been most treated, which results have been obtained and which aspects require further attention, we reviewed papers published during the period of 2015–2020 dealing with root reinforcement. This paper—after introducing main effects of vegetation on slope stability, recalling studies of reference—provides a synthesis of the main contributions to the subtopics: (i) approaches for estimating root reinforcement distribution at a regional scale; (ii) new slope stability models, including root reinforcement and (iii) the influence of particular plant species, forest management, forest structure, wildfires and soil moisture gradient on root reinforcement. Including root reinforcement in slope stability analysis has resulted a topic receiving growing attention, particularly in Europe; in addition, research interests are also emerging in Asia. Despite recent advances, including root reinforcement into regional models still represents a research challenge, because of its high spatial and temporal variability: only a few applications are reported about areas of hundreds of square kilometers. The most promising and necessary future research directions include the study of soil moisture gradient and wildfire controls on the root strength, as these aspects have not been fully integrated into slope stability modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]