Landslide Characteristics and Susceptibility Assessment

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Hazards".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 7433

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Interests: geotechnical engineering; geological hazard; centrifuge test
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E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. College of Environment and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 61059, China
2. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
Interests: landslide and debris flow hazard assessment; field monitoring of land-slides; slope hydrology; rainfall threshold

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As one of the major natural hazards, landslides cause causalities and tremendous property losses in mountainous areas. Statistics from the Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) show that landslides are responsible for at least 17% of all fatalities from natural hazards worldwide. Therefore, effective prediction and susceptibility mapping for landslides are regarded as important and necessary to remediate damage and loss of life. 

However, producing reliable spatial prediction and assessment of landslides susceptibility is still challenging work because the complex characteristics of landslides are influenced by the combination of some or all of the contributing factors, such as bedrock, climate, hydrology, soil condition and even human activities. Moreover, the employed modeling approaches have a strong influence on the quality of landslide susceptibility maps. 

This Special Issue aims to collect research developments related to landslide characteristics and susceptibility assessment, combining multidisciplinary approaches coming from geology, geomorphology, geoinformatics, geomechanics, statistics, machine learning and numerical modeling in order to develop innovative landslide susceptibility assessment approaches and to provide a comprehensive update of the state of the art in this field. All landslide types are considered, from fast rockfalls to rapid debris flows, from slow slides to very rapid rock avalanches. All geographical scales are considered, from the local to the global scale. Of interest are contributions that investigate theoretical aspects of landslide hazard prediction, with emphasis on landslide susceptibility assessments, including conceptual, mathematical, physical, statistical, numerical and computational problems, and applied contributions that demonstrate (with cases) the possibility of exploring the specific characteristics of individual or multiple land-slides. Of particular interest are contributions that aim at: the evaluation of the quality of landslide susceptibility assessments; the comparison of the performance of different susceptibility assessment models; the use of landslide susceptibility assessments in operational systems; and investigations of the potential for the exploitation of new or emerging technologies (e.g., monitoring, computational, earth observation technologies) in order to explore the specific landslide characteristics.

Prof. Dr. Yu Zhao
Dr. Zhenlei Wei
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • landslide characteristics
  • landslide susceptibility
  • geoinformatics
  • machine learning
  • geology
  • geomechanics
  • geomorphology

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 3299 KiB  
Article
Piuro Landslide: 3D Hydromechanical Numerical Modelling of the 1618 Event
by Andrea Morcioni, Tiziana Apuani and Francesco Cecinato
Geosciences 2023, 13(2), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences13020049 - 5 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2209
Abstract
The Piuro 1618 landslide represents a well-known case history of a large Alpine landslide. It destroyed the ancient village of Piuro (Italian Bregaglia Valley), renowned as an important trading center between the Mediterranean region and Northern Europe. The event had a significant impact [...] Read more.
The Piuro 1618 landslide represents a well-known case history of a large Alpine landslide. It destroyed the ancient village of Piuro (Italian Bregaglia Valley), renowned as an important trading center between the Mediterranean region and Northern Europe. The event had a significant impact among communities of all Alpine regions and was well documented by chronicles and paintings during subsequent decades. However, some aspects, such as the geometry reconstruction of the landslide body, the location of the landslide scarp, and its dynamics, remained undefined in previous studies, and a geomechanical characterization of the failure area is completely missing. Using field and laboratory analysis followed by stress–strain numerical modelling, this work develops a 3D conceptual geomechanical model of the slope considering its complex geological framework. The aim is to back-analyze the 1618 event, defining predisposing and triggering factors of the sliding event, and providing verifications on the geometry and location of the failure scar, as well as on the landslide dynamics. A coupled hydro-mechanical analysis with a 3D numerical approach is presented, assuming a rainfall scenario as a possible triggering factor. Simulated displacement and the development of a deep region of shear strain localization at a depth roughly corresponding to that of the detected Piuro sliding surface, allow us to highlight the mechanical role of geological elements outcropping along the slope and to validate the proposed scenario as a likely triggering factor for the 1618 event. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landslide Characteristics and Susceptibility Assessment)
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18 pages, 4216 KiB  
Article
Integrated Characterization and Analysis of a Slow-Moving Landslide Using Geotechnical and Geophysical Methods
by Michael Kiernan, Mengwei Xuan, Jack Montgomery and J. Brian Anderson
Geosciences 2022, 12(11), 404; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12110404 - 2 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1875
Abstract
Slope failures in roadway embankments are common occurrences and can lead to traffic disruptions and large costs to repair damage. In areas with high-plasticity clays, special attention must be paid to characterizing both the stratigraphy and the potential for strength loss. This study [...] Read more.
Slope failures in roadway embankments are common occurrences and can lead to traffic disruptions and large costs to repair damage. In areas with high-plasticity clays, special attention must be paid to characterizing both the stratigraphy and the potential for strength loss. This study demonstrates the use of an integrated site characterization approach, which seeks to utilize results from geotechnical and geophysical tests to understand the behavior of a landslide in west Alabama. The timing and mechanism of the initial failure causing the preexisting shear plane at this site are not known. Results from electrical resistivity and seismic geophysical tests are integrated with information from borings and index tests to develop a representative cross-section for the landslide, and torsional ring shear results are used to measure the drained fully softened and residual strengths. Both the limit equilibrium (LEM) and strength reduction method (SRM) analyses are used to examine possible failure mechanisms. The results show good agreement between noncircular LEM and SRM analyses and indicate that the initial failure was likely due to undrained loading of the clay. Analyses utilizing the residual drained strength envelopes produce FS values significantly lower than 1 indicating the slope to be unstable when soil on the failure plane exists at the residual state. Sensitivity analyses suggest that the combined effect of lowering the water table and strength recovery may explain the intermittent nature of movements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landslide Characteristics and Susceptibility Assessment)
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15 pages, 2751 KiB  
Article
Characteristics, Kinematics and Contributing Factors of Compound and Translational Landslides in the Interior Plains of Canada
by Luiz Biagini, Renato Macciotta, Chris Gräpel, Kristen Tappenden and Roger Skirrow
Geosciences 2022, 12(8), 289; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12080289 - 25 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2424
Abstract
Understanding landslide kinematics, their characteristics, and contributing factors is crucial for decision-making regarding mitigation strategies for infrastructure projects. These characteristics depend on the geomorphology of the area, climate, and proximity to water bodies and anthropogenic activity. Some geomorphological features are shared between some [...] Read more.
Understanding landslide kinematics, their characteristics, and contributing factors is crucial for decision-making regarding mitigation strategies for infrastructure projects. These characteristics depend on the geomorphology of the area, climate, and proximity to water bodies and anthropogenic activity. Some geomorphological features are shared between some western Canadian regions, particularly within the Canadian Interior Plains (Interior Plains). This paper synthesizes the failure mechanisms, kinematics, triggering events, and contributing factors associated with 11 landslides in the Interior Plains, with detailed qualitative descriptions of two of them. The paper discusses the commonalities of bedrock formations that contain thin sub-horizontal and continuous deposits of weak materials as the main geomorphological predisposing factor for landslides in this region. The findings show commonalities in the effect of seasonal fluctuations in the characteristics of water bodies in contact with these landslides, driving episodes of landside reactivation, acceleration and deceleration. Importantly, anthropogenic activity as a trigger for the initiation of some of these landslides suggests a high susceptibility of certain slopes in the Interior Plains to instability resulting from relatively small changes in in-situ stresses. This information becomes critical for assessing the landslide susceptibility of valley slopes in this region for infrastructure planning, design, and operation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landslide Characteristics and Susceptibility Assessment)
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