Could road constructions be more hazardous than an earthquake in terms of mass movement?

Roads can have a significant impact on the frequency of mass wasting events in mountainous areas. However, characterizing the extent and pervasiveness of mass movements over time has rarely been documented due to limitations in available data sources to consistently map such events. We monitored the evolution of a road network and assessed its effect on mass movements for a 11-year window in Arhavi, Turkey. The main road construction projects run in the area are associated with a hydroelectric power plant as well as other road extension works and are clearly associated with the vast majority (90.1%) of mass movements in the area. We also notice that the overall number and size of the mass movements are much larger than in the naturally occurring comparison area. This means that the sediment load originating from the anthropogenically induced mass movements is larger than its counterpart associated with naturally occurring landslides. Notably, this extra sediment load could cause river channel aggregation, reduce accommodation space and as a consequence, it could lead to an increase in the probability and severity of flooding along the river channel. This marks a strong and negative effect of human activities on the natural course of earth surface processes. We also compare frequency-area distributions of human-induced mass movements mapped in this study and co-seismic landslide inventories from the literature. By doing so, we aim to better understand the consequences of human effects on mass movements in a comparative manner. Our findings show that the damage generated by the road construction in terms of sediment loads to river channels is compatible with the possible effect of a theoretical earthquake with a magnitude greater than Mw = 6.0.

Towards a predictive multi-phase model for alpine mass movements and process cascades

Alpine mass movements can generate process cascades involving different materials including rock, ice, snow, and water. Numerical modelling is an essential tool for the quantification of natural hazards, but state-of-the-art operational models reach their limits when facing unprecedented or complex events. Here, we advance our predictive capabilities for process cascades on the basis of a three-dimensional numerical model, coupling fundamental conservation laws to finite strain elastoplasticity. Through its hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian character, our approach naturally reproduces fractures and collisions, erosion/deposition phenomena, and multi-phase interactions, which finally grant very accurate simulations of complex dynamics. Four benchmark simulations demonstrate the physical detail of the model and its applicability to real-world full-scale events, including various materials and ranging through four orders of magnitude in volume. In the future, our model can support risk-management strategies through predictions of the impact of potentially catastrophic cascading mass movements at vulnerable sites.

Automatic Monitoring System Designed for Controlling the Stability of Underground Excavation

Ensuring the stability of mining excavations is a crucial aspect of underground mining. For thispurpose, appropriate shapes, dimensions, and support of workings are designed for the given mining andgeological conditions. However, for the proper assessment of the adequacy of the used technical solutions,and the calibration of the models used in the support design, it is necessary to monitor the behavior of theexcavation. It should apply to the rock mass and the support. The paper presents the automatic systemdesigned for underground workings monitoring, and the example of its use in the heading. Electronicdevices that measure the rock mass movements in the roof, the load on the standing support, and on bolts,the stress in the rock mass, are connected to the datalogger and can collect data for a long of time withoutany maintenance, also in hard-to-reach places. This feature enables the system to be widely used, inparticular, in excavations in the vicinity of exploitation, goafs, or in the area of a liquidated exploitationfield.

Resilience of Railway Transport to Four Types of Natural Hazards: An Analysis of Daily Train Volumes

A crucial step in measuring the resilience of railway infrastructure is to quantify the extent of its vulnerability to natural hazards. In this paper, we analyze the vulnerability of the German railway network to four types of natural hazards that regularly cause disruptions in German rail operations: floods, mass movements, slope fires, and tree falls. Using daily train traffic data matched with various data on disruptive events, we quantify the extent to which these four types of natural hazard reduce daily train traffic volumes. With a negative binomial count data regression, we find evidence that the track segments of the German railway network are most vulnerable to floods, followed by mass movements and tree-fall events. On average, floods reduce traffic on track segments by 19% of the average daily train traffic, mass movements by 16%, and tree fall by 4%. Moreover, when more than one type of natural hazard affects the track segment on the same day, train traffic on that segment falls by 34% of the average train traffic. Slope fires have an ambiguous and nonrobust effect on train traffic due to the reverse causality due to its triggering factors. This is the first study that attempts to rank different natural hazards according to their impact on railway traffic. The results have implications for the selection of resilience strategy and can help prioritize policy measures.

Reducing sea cliffs hazards in pocket beaches through beach nourishment on the Barlavento Coast (Algarve, Portugal)

Tourism based on “sun and beach” is the main economic activity in the Algarve region. A considerable part of the beaches of the Barlavento coast corresponds to embedded sand accumulated along the irregular lacework-like coastline of rocky cliffs cut into Miocene calcarenites. The pattern of touristic occupation in the Algarve and the geodynamics of the rocky sea cliffs, characterized by discontinuous and intermittent occurrence of slope mass movements, result in a high level of risk to beach users along pocket beaches. In order to mitigate the risk associated with the cliff geodynamics, artificial beach nourishment was performed in Castelo and Coelha pocket beaches on the Barlavento Coast, in 2014, increasing the beach area by 3.5 times. The effects of the beach nourishment on the occupation patterns of those beaches along the 2006-2016 decade, before and after the beach nourishment, are herein presented and discussed. Occupancy data were obtained covering different seasons along the year, by counting the number of beach users, regardless of age, using periodic and systematic photographs taken at strategic points that provide full coverage of the beach areas. Before the beach nourishments the area of dry sand outside high and moderate hazard zones, measured at half-tide under average summer wave conditions was 500 m2 at Coelha beach and 800 m2 at Castelo beach. After beach nourishment the same area increased to 6700 m2 at Coelha beach and 7100 m2 at Castelo beach. Results show that, following the beach fill, beach occupation by recreational users naturally shifted seaward, moving out from the cliff hazard areas. After the intervention, the occupation of high and moderate hazard areas reduced significantly, from 37 % to 11 % in Castelo beach and from 59 % to 27 % in Coelha beach. Keywords: beach nourishment; hazard; rocky cliffs; Algarve; Portugal.

Geological-geotechnical risk mapping of gravitational mass movements in an urban area in Colombo, Brazil

This work presents a geological-geotechnical risk map of gravitational mass movements and a susceptibility map to shallow translational slides to Vila Nova community, located in the municipality of Colombo, Brazil. The first map was created through a qualitative mapping methodology and the second one was elaborated using a deterministic method of slope stability. An aerial photogrammetric survey with UAV technology was performed, as well as field reconnaissance, laboratory testing, and geoprocessing techniques. Seven slope failures were identified as well as a range of other evidences of instability associated with the predisposition of the terrain to erosive and gravitational movements linked to human intervention without urban planning and engineering techniques. Moreover, the qualitative and quantitative analyses pointed out that 13% to 9% of the study area, respectively, are in a very high-risk condition for landslides. Thus, the resulting cartographic products are presented as an important technical contribution for landslide risk management as well as land use planning for reducing the geotechnical problems faced on site.

Social Reproduction at Work, Social Reproduction as Work: A Feminist Political Economy Perspective

Social reproduction has received considerable recent attention from academics and activists aiming to stimulate and advance transformative political change. Yet, an understanding of social reproduction as “work” has sometimes slipped away, leaving behind important anti-racist feminist insights. Engaging with recent contributions from scholars in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, we argue that social reproduction is most useful as a concept, not as a theory, and is best understood as “work”. We point out quandaries and ambiguities that have produced conceptual confusion in scholarship on social reproduction and argue for a conceptualization offered by feminist political economy. We conclude that social reproduction, when understood as work, can support efforts to build the mass movements and solidarity necessary for effective anti-capitalist politics if its relationship to, and contradictions with, the processes of dispossession and capital accumulation are taken into account.

Snow Avalanche Assessment in Mass Movement-Prone Areas: Results from Climate Extremization in Relationship with Environmental Risk Reduction in the Prati di Tivo Area (Gran Sasso Massif, Central Italy)

Mass movements processes (i.e., landslides and snow avalanches) play an important role in landscape evolution and largely affect high mountain environments worldwide and in Italy. The increase in temperatures, the irregularity of intense weather events, and several heavy snowfall events increased mass movements’ occurrence, especially in mountain regions with a high impact on settlements, infrastructures, and well-developed tourist facilities. In detail, the Prati di Tivo area, located on the northern slope of the Gran Sasso Massif (Central Italy), has been widely affected by mass movement phenomena. Following some recent damaging snow avalanches, a risk mitigation protocol has been activated to develop mitigation activities and land use policies. The main goal was to perform a multidisciplinary analysis of detailed climatic and geomorphological analysis, integrated with Geographic Information System (GIS) processing, to advance snow avalanche hazard assessment methodologies in mass movement-prone areas. Furthermore, this work could represent an operative tool for any geomorphological hazard studies in high mountainous environments, readily available to interested stakeholders. It could also provide a scientific basis for implementing sustainable territorial planning, emergency management, and loss-reduction measures.

The Political Religion of Communism in Hungarian Children’s Choir Compositions between 1958–1989

Like all cultures, totalitarian regimes develop their own symbols and rituals. As such symbols, music and music making play an important role in expressing values, norms of the community, as well as in providing models for living in it (Geertz, 1973). They are especially valuable tools for educating children. This paper summarizes the result of a pilot study in the lyrics of choral pieces for children, that were distributed along with the state-published methodological journal, Énektanítás [Teaching Singing] and its continuation, Az ének-zene tanítása [Teaching Singing-Music] between 1958–1989. Using political religion (Gentile, 2006) as conceptual framework for content analysis, the study presents: 1) how different characteristics of the communist doctrine appeared in the lyrics of choral pieces and 2) how they changed over time, outlining the life-cycle of the regime itself from militant mass movements to giving place to expressions of individualism and alternative faiths until it would dissolve in the end.

Probabilistic Analysis of the Obstruction of Water Sources Due to the Occurrence of Rainfall-Triggered Mass Movements

This paper presents a methodology for the probabilistic estimation of the obstruction of water streams generated by shallow mass movements triggered by rainfall. The study focuses on the Ovejas River, a tributary stream of the Medellín River, in the jurisdiction of the municipality of San Vicente in the department of Antioquia (Colombia). The occurrence of a mass movements was evaluated by deterministic and probabilistic methods based on the automation of processes of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial modeling. The spatial distribution of the mass movement hazard was estimated in terms of Factor of Safety (FoS) values by the deterministic method with physical basis SLIDE (Slope - Infiltration - Distributed Equilibrium), which allows the hazard zonation by calculating a FoS for rainfall-induced mass movements with different return periods. The rainfall regimes of the study area are estimated by means of a simple scaling Log Normal Model. On the other hand, the Probability of Failure (PF) analysis was performed under Rosenblueth’s punctual estimates method (PEM), which allows incorporating the uncertainty of the soil parameters. Subsequently, the resulting zones with high hazard that could detach and reach the Ovejas River channel are identified as sources for runout modeling by means of the Flow R model, thus estimating the extent of mass movement in probabilistic terms. In all the analyzed scenarios, the sliding material from the critical stability zones has a high probability of spreading to the riverbed of the main river. This analysis makes possible to identify those areas of the riverbed that should be analyzed with more detail and require possible intervention for the protection of the riverbed.