scholarly journals Towards a rapid assessment of highway slope disasters by using multidisciplinary techniques

Landslides ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng-Chia Weng ◽  
Cheng-Han Lin ◽  
Wen-Jie Shiu ◽  
Wei-An Chao ◽  
Chia-Chi Chiu ◽  
...  

AbstractMega-earthquakes and extreme climate events accompanied by intrinsic fragile geology lead to numerous landslides along mountain highways in Taiwan, causing enormous life and economic losses. In this study, a system for rapid slope disaster information integration and assessment is proposed with the aim of providing information on landslide occurrence, failure mechanisms, and subsequent landslide-affected areas to the highway authority rapidly. The functionality of the proposed system is deployed into three units: (1) geohazard rapid report (GeoPORT I), (2) multidisciplinary geological survey report (GeoPORT II), and (3) site-specific landslide simulation report (GeoPORT III). After landslide occurrence, the seismology-based monitoring network rapidly provides the initial slope disaster information, including preliminary location, event magnitude, earthquake activity, and source dynamics, within an hour. Within 3 days of the landslide, a multidisciplinary geological survey is conducted to collect high-precision topographical, geological, and remote-sensing data to determine the possible failure mechanism. After integrating the aforementioned information, a full-scale three-dimensional landslide simulation based on the discrete element method is performed within 10 days to reveal the failure process and to identify the areas potentially affected by subsequent disasters through scenario modeling. Overall, the proposed system can promptly provide comprehensive and objective information to relevant authorities after the event occurrence for hazard assessment. The proposed system was validated using a landslide event in the Central Cross-Island Highway of Taiwan.

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Łuszczyńska ◽  
Małgorzata Wistuba ◽  
Ireneusz Malik ◽  
Marek Krąpiec ◽  
Bartłomiej Szypuła

Abstract Most landslide hazard maps are developed on the basis of an area’s susceptibility to a landslide occurrence, but dendrochronological techniques allows one to develop maps based on past landslide activity. The aim of the study was to use dendrochronological techniques to develop a landslide hazard map for a large area, covering 3.75 km2. We collected cores from 131 trees growing on 46 sampling sites, measured tree-ring width, and dated growth eccentricity events (which occur when tree rings of different widths are formed on opposite sides of a trunk), recording the landslide events which had occurred over the previous several dozen years. Then, the number of landslide events per decade was calculated at every sampling site. We interpolated the values obtained, added layers with houses and roads, and developed a landslide hazard map. The map highlights areas which are potentially safe for existing buildings, roads and future development. The main advantage of a landslide hazard map developed on the basis of dendrochronological data is the possibility of acquiring long series of data on landslide activity over large areas at a relatively low cost. The main disadvantage is that the results obtained relate to the measurement of anatomical changes and the macroscopic characteristics of the ring structure occurring in the wood of tilted trees, and these factors merely provide indirect information about the time of the landslide event occurrence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu ◽  
Zhao ◽  
Chin

The southeastern coast of China suffers many typhoon disasters every year, causing huge casualties and economic losses. In addition, collecting statistics on typhoon disaster situations is hard work for the government. At the same time, near-real-time disaster-related information can be obtained on developed social media platforms like Twitter and Weibo. Many cases have proved that citizens are able to organize themselves promptly on the spot, and begin to share disaster information when a disaster strikes, producing massive VGI (volunteered geographic information) about the disaster situation, which could be valuable for disaster response if this VGI could be exploited efficiently and properly. However, this social media information has features such as large quantity, high noise, and unofficial modes of expression that make it difficult to obtain useful information. In order to solve this problem, we first designed a new classification system based on the characteristics of social medial data like Sina Weibo data, and made a microblogging dataset of typhoon damage with according category labels. Secondly, we used this social medial dataset to train the deep learning model, and constructed a typhoon disaster mining model based on a deep learning network, which could automatically extract information about the disaster situation. The model is different from the general classification system in that it automatically selected microblogs related to disasters from a large number of microblog data, and further subdivided them into different types of disasters to facilitate subsequent emergency response and loss estimation. The advantages of the model included a wide application range, high reliability, strong pertinence and fast speed. The research results of this thesis provide a new approach to typhoon disaster assessment in the southeastern coastal areas of China, and provide the necessary information for the authoritative information acquisition channel.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Makia L. Diko ◽  
Shallati C. Banyini ◽  
Batobeleng F. Monareng

Inherent soil properties and anthropogenic activities on slope faces are considered potential recipes for landslide occurrence. The objectives of this study were to physically characterise unconsolidated soils and identify on-going anthropogenic activities on selected slopes in Dzanani in order to appraise their role as contributory factors in enhancing landslide susceptibility. Methods employed for this study comprised mapping, description of soil profile, identification of anthropogenic activities, as well as experimental determination of soil colour, particle size distribution and Atterberg limits. Geologically, the study area comprised rocks of the Fundudzi, Sibasa and Tshifhefhe Formations, ascribed to the Soutpansberg Group. Digging of foundations for construction purposes and subsistence agriculture were identified as the main anthropogenic activities. The soils were predominantly reddish-yellow in colour, texturally variable (silty clay – clayey – silty clay loam and clay loam) and of medium plasticity. Compared to soils from other parts of the world developed on volcanic cones or associated with a landslide event, those from Dzanani were qualified as generally inactive and not prone to landslides. Although the physical attributes suggested the soils were not at a critical state, on-going anthropogenic activities may enhance deep weathering and ultimately alter current soil physical characteristics to a critical state.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Vaz ◽  
José Luís Zêzere ◽  
Susana Pereira ◽  
Sérgio C. Oliveira ◽  
Ricardo A. C. Garcia ◽  
...  

Abstract. This work proposes a comprehensive methodology to assess rainfall thresholds for landslide initiation, using a centenary landslide database associated with a single centenary daily rainfall dataset. The methodology is applied to the Lisbon region and include the rainfall return period analysis that was used to identify the critical rainfall combination (quantity-duration) related to each landslide event. The spatial representativeness of the reference rain gauge is evaluated and the rainfall thresholds is assessed and validated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) metrics. Results show that landslide events located up to 10 km from the rain gauge can be used to calculate the rainfall thresholds in the study area; however, such thresholds may be used with acceptable confidence up to 50 km distance from the rain gauge. The obtained rainfall thresholds using linear and potential regression have a good performance in ROC metrics. However, the intermediate thresholds based on the probability of landslide events, established in the zone between the lower limit threshold and the upper limit threshold are much more informative as they indicate the probability of landslide event occurrence given rainfall exceeding the threshold. This information can be easily included in landslide early warning systems, especially when combined with the probability of rainfall above each threshold.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Rudy ◽  
Steve Kokelj ◽  
Alice Wilson ◽  
Tim Ensom ◽  
Peter Morse ◽  
...  

<p>The Beaufort Delta region in Northwest Territories, Canada is one of the most rapidly warming areas on Earth. Permafrost thaw and climate change are major stressors on northern infrastructure, particularly in this region which hosts the highest density of Arctic communities and the longest road network constructed on ice-rich permafrost in Canada. The Dempster and Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highways (ITH) comprise a 400-km corridor connecting the region with southern Canada. The corridor delivers a unique opportunity to develop a societally-relevant, northern-driven permafrost research network to encourage collaboration, and support pure and applied studies that engage stakeholders, encourage community participation, and acknowledge northern interests. Successful implementation requires leadership and institutional support from the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) and Inuvialuit and Gwich’in Boards and landowners, and coordination between research organizations including NWT Geological Survey, Aurora Research Institute, Geological Survey of Canada, and universities to define key research priorities, human and financial resources to undertake studies, and protocols to manage data collection and reporting.</p><p>In 2017, a state of the art ground temperature monitoring network was established along the Dempster-ITH corridor by the GNWT in collaboration with Federal and Academic partners. This network in combination with the maintenance of the Dempster Highway and recent design and construction of the ITH, has created a national legacy of permafrost geotechnical, terrain and geohazard information in this region. The objectives of this program are to integrate old and new data to synthesize physiographic, hydrological, thermal, and geotechnical conditions along the corridor, and to develop applied permafrost research projects that support planning and maintenance of this critical northern infrastructure. In this presentation, we highlight: 1) a collaborative research framework that builds northern capacity and involves northerners in the generation of knowledge and its application to increase community based permafrost monitoring; 2) summaries of existing infrastructure datasets and their foundation for research; and 3) new projects that address emerging climate-driven infrastructure stressors. As the effects of climate change on permafrost environments, infrastructure and communities continue to increase, the need for northern scientific capacity and applied research to support informed decision-making, climate change adaptation and risk management will become increasingly critical. The development of resilient researcher-stakeholder-community relationships is also necessary for the scientific and research initiatives to reach their potential.</p><p> </p>


Eos ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randy Showstack

Arizona state services at risk include a program to map Earth fissures; the state's earthquake-monitoring network; and the Survey's mineral resources program.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. p61
Author(s):  
Yusuf A. Lahai ◽  
Dauda M. Kamara ◽  
Chernoh M. Jalloh

Freetown has documented one of the most devastating landslides in the world in 2017. Many debates in the media, few scientific papers and technical documents, have argued with eloquence ascertaining human factors, particularly deforestation and urbanization, as the dominant causative factor. This notion seems to be widely accepted for all other slides by the communities, government agencies and departments. Therefore, this work attempts to expand on existing public knowledge by demonstrating the less influential or insignificant human factors which can have impacts on certain landslide occurrences in the Freetown Layered-Complex. The representative landslide considered for this study occurred beyond the vicinity of urbanized zone. Therefore, to establish a clear understanding of the actual causative factors, fieldwork and laboratory investigations were undertaken. During the field survey, we assessed the rock type, discontinuities, geomorphology and hydrological influence of the landslide. The specific rock series underlying the landslide was confirmed through thin section analysis at the National Minerals Agency (NMA). DCP tests and laboratory analyses enhanced the derivation of geotechnical properties of the residual soil/regolith.This work systematically presented how natural conditions, such as: geology (rock types and tectonic signatures), geomorphology, hydrology and the geotechnical properties of the slope soil, have interplayed in the occurrence of the landslide event. In addition, the slip surface of the landslide occurred at a depth below the reach of plant activities (2.6 m). This information may help modify public messages by institutions and can be a source of useful information for the country’s Landslide Disaster Management Department (LDMD).


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 631-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. E. Clark ◽  
A. J. West ◽  
R. G. Hilton ◽  
G. P. Asner ◽  
C. A. Quesada ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this study, we assess the geomorphic role of a rare, large-magnitude landslide event and consider the effect of this event on mountain forest ecosystems and the erosion of organic carbon in an Andean river catchment. Proximal triggers such as large rain storms are known to cause large numbers of landslides, but the relative effects of such low-frequency, high-magnitude events are not well known in the context of more regular, smaller events. We develop a 25 year duration, annual-resolution landslide inventory by mapping landslide occurrence in the Kosñipata Valley, Peru, from 1988 to 2012 using Landsat, Quickbird and Worldview satellite images. Catchment-wide landslide rates were high, at 0.076 % yr−1 by area, indicating landslides may completely turn over hillslopes every ~ 1320 years and strip 28 tC km−2 yr−1 of soil (73 %) and vegetation (27 %). A single rain storm in March 2010 accounted for 27 % of all landslide area observed during the 25 year study and removed 26 % of the organic carbon that was stripped from hillslopes by all landslides during the study. An approximately linear magnitude–frequency relationship for annual landslide areas suggests that large storms contribute an equivalent landslide failure area to the sum of smaller frequency landslides events occurring over the same period. However, the spatial distribution of landslides associated with the 2010 storm is distinct. On the basis of precipitation statistics and landscape morphology, we hypothesize that spatial focusing of storm-triggered landslide erosion at lower elevations in the Kosñipata catchment may be characteristic of longer-term patterns. These patterns may have implications for the source and composition of sediments and organic material supplied to river systems of the Amazon basin, and, through focusing of regular ecological disturbance, for the species composition of forested ecosystems in the region.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 6130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Felizardo Batista ◽  
Larissa De Brum Passini ◽  
Alessander Christopher Morales Kormann

Landslides are one of the main causes of death caused by disasters in the world. In this study, methodologies to measure landslide costs and to assess vulnerability are presented, with the objective of applying them to landslide risk analyses. The methodologies were applied in a region of Serra do Mar, which is crossed by a highway. The analyses and mappings were implemented in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Through the application of the methodology that considers both direct and indirect costs in the composition of total cost, it was established how much an m2 of a landslide would cost. The composition of direct costs encompassed the damages related to restoration or construction of the highways, infrastructures, unpaved roads, residential and commercial buildings, vegetal cover and agricultural areas. In indirect costs, the economic losses by victims, highway interdiction, and agricultural area profitability were calculated. In the methodology for vulnerability assessment, bodily injuries, structural damages, and functional disturbances resulted from landslides were analyzed. The risk assessment was performed through the junction of the maps of total cost, vulnerability and susceptibility. The results indicate that indirect costs were predominant in cost composition, corresponding to 87% of total costs, in comparison to 13% of the direct costs, stressing the importance of considering indirect costs in economic measurement studies. As a result, it is possible to conclude that studying landslide consequences as economic parameters supports the increasing need of performing risk quantitative analyses. It is also prudent to add that these studies help decision makers in projects of disaster risk mitigation strategies, by allowing the identification of regions with greater economic impacts in case of landslide occurrence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sungyong Park ◽  
Hyuntaek Lim ◽  
Bibek Tamang ◽  
Jihuan Jin ◽  
Seungjoo Lee ◽  
...  

Many causalities and economic losses are caused by natural disasters, such as landslides and slope failures, every year. This suggests that there is a need for an early warning system to mitigate casualties and economic losses. Most of the studies on early warning systems have been carried out by predicting landslide-prone areas, but studies related to the prediction of landslide occurrence time points by the real-time monitoring of slope displacement are still insufficient. In this study, a displacement sensor and an Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring system were combined together, to monitor slope failure through cutting experiments of a real-scale model slope. Real-time monitoring of the slope movement was performed simultaneously via a low-cost, efficient, and easy-to-use IoT system. Based on the obtained displacement data, an inverse displacement analysis was performed. Finally, a slope instrumentation standard was proposed based on the slope of the inverse displacement for early evacuation before slope failure.


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