On the Landslide Hazard with the Impact of Climate Change in Central Taiwan

<p>Due to active tectonic activity, the rock formations are young and highly fractured in Taiwan area. The dynamic changing of river morphology makes the highly weathered formations or colluviums prone to landslide and debris flow. For the past decade, the effect of climate change is significant and creates more and more extreme weather events. The change of rainfall behavior significantly changes the landslide behavior, which makes the large-scale landslides, like the Shiaolin landslide, possible. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the new technologies for landslide investigation, monitoring, analysis, early warning, etc.</p><p>Since the landslide hazards in Taiwan area are mainly induced by heavy rainfall, due to climate change and the subsequent extreme weather events, the probability of landslides is also increased. Focusing on the upstreams of the watersheds in Central Taiwan, this project studied the behavior and hazard of shallow and deep-seated landslides. Different types of susceptibility models in different catchment scales were tested, in which the control factors were analyzed and discussed. This study also employs rainfall frequency analysis together with the atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) downscaling estimation to predict the extreme rainfalls in the future. Such that the future hazard of the shallow and deep-seated landslide in the study area can be predicted. The results of predictive analysis can be applied for risk prevention and management in the study area.</p>

On the Landslide Hazard with the Impact of Climate Change in Central Taiwan

<p>Due to active tectonic activity, the rock formations are young and highly fractured in Taiwan area. The dynamic changing of river morphology makes the highly weathered formations or colluviums prone to landslide and debris flow. For the past decade, the effect of climate change is significant and creates more and more extreme weather events. The change of rainfall behavior significantly changes the landslide behavior, which makes the large-scale landslides, like the Shiaolin landslide, possible. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the new technologies for landslide investigation, monitoring, analysis, early warning, etc.</p><p>Since the landslide hazards in Taiwan area are mainly induced by heavy rainfall, due to climate change and the subsequent extreme weather events, the probability of landslides is also increased. Focusing on the upstreams of the watersheds in Central Taiwan, this project studied the behavior and hazard of shallow and deep-seated landslides. Different types of susceptibility models in different catchment scales were tested, in which the control factors were analyzed and discussed. This study also employs rainfall frequency analysis together with the atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) downscaling estimation to predict the extreme rainfalls in the future. Such that the future hazard of the shallow and deep-seated landslide in the study area can be predicted. The results of predictive analysis can be applied for risk prevention and management in the study area.</p>

THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGY IN EAST TAIWAN AREA: AN EXAMPLE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

The purpose of the research was to understand the public’s social Image of emerging technology—nanotechnology. Furthermore, the differences among different major students and the decision-making style in “self-evaluation and other-evaluation” were analyzed too. In this research, the social image was defined by three phases, “general image of nanotechnology”, “business decision behavior of nanotechnology”, and “free recall of nanotechnology”. The research instrument was a self-designed questionnaire “college student’ social image of nanotechnology”. The participants were 256 college students selected using convenience sampling from one university in the east Taiwan area. The main findings were: (1) Students tended to agree that nanotechnology is better than other general-tech. (2) The college students believed that they have more rational attitude and behavior to make decision than others. (3) Most college students’ association related "nanotechnology image" with "high tech" in thinking. Keywords: nanotechnology image, public understanding, social image.