Comparative evaluation of landslide susceptibility in Minamata area, Japan

Landslides are unpredictable; however, the susceptibility of landslide occurrence can be assessed using qualitative and quantitative methods based on the technology of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS). A map of landslide inventory was obtained from the previous work in the Minamata area, the interpretation from aerial photographs taken in 1999 and 2002. A total of 160 landslides was identified in four periods. Following the construction of geospatial databases, including lithology, topography, soil deposits, land use, etc., the study documents the relationship between landslide hazard and the factors that affect the occurrence of landslides. Different methods, namely the logistic regression analysis and the information value model, were then adopted to produce susceptibility maps of landslide occurrence. After the application of each method, two resultant maps categorize the four classes of susceptibility as high, medium, low and very low. Both of them generated acceptable results as both classify the majority of the cells with landslide occurrence in high or medium susceptibility classes, which could be believed to be a success. By combining the hazard maps generated from both methods, the susceptibility was classified as high–medium and low–very low levels, in which the classification of high susceptibility level covers 6.5% of the area, while the areas predicted to be unstable, which are 50.5% of the total area, are classified as the low susceptibility level. However, comparing the results from both the approaches, 43% of the areas were misclassified, either from high–medium to low–very low or low–very low to high–medium classes. Due to the misclassification, 8% and 3.28% of all the areas, which should be stable or free of landsliding, were evaluated as high–medium susceptibility using the logistic regression analysis and the information value model, respectively. Moreover, in the case of the class rank change from high–medium susceptibility to low–very low, 35% and 39.72% of all mapping areas were predicted as stable using both the approaches, respectively, but in these areas landslides were likely to occur or were actually recognized.     

Rainstorm-induced landslides at Kisawa village, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, August 2004

Heavy rain fell on the Shikoku area during Typhoon Namtheun, setting a new record for daily rainfall in Japan of 1317 mm. The rain which peaked at 120 mm/h, triggered numerous landslides in the Nakagawa basin of Tokushima Prefecture, Japan on August 1, 2004. Among them, four large, rapid, long-runout landslides were triggered at Kisawa village. Two people were caught in one landslide and disappeared without trace, and there was much property damage. Ring-shear tests on samples from the landslides showed that shear resistance was greatly reduced by high pore-water pressure after shear failure was triggered by the increase in ground-water level during the rain.     

Downslope volume enlargement of a debris slide–debris flow in the 1999 Hiroshima, Japan, rainstorm

Following a heavy rainstorm on 29 June 1999, hundreds of slope failures occurred in granitic mountains in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Among these events, a highly mobile landslide (termed the Kameyama landslide in this paper), which occurred in Kameyama area of Hiroshima city, was the most catastrophic, and was investigated in detail. The displaced soil mass from the source area of this landslide traveled about 300 m and deposited a volume more than 10 times as great as that in the source area. The landslide originated in and traversed a valley-shaped concave slope covered by pre-existing colluvial debris deposits. In addition, a spring was visible in the source area and very shallow ground water was observed in an observation pit dug in the source area. Thus, it is inferred that the ground-water table rose quickly during the rainfall, and that this rise triggered the slope failure in the source area. Based on a field survey along the landslide cross section, a possible explanation for the mechanism of the landslide was obtained: the displaced soil mass from the source area impacted the debris deposit in the path of the landslide, thus triggering liquefaction failure of the saturated part of debris. The original landslide and the liquefied debris then moved downslope as a single mass. To examine this assumption, ring-shear tests were performed on samples taken from the source area. Undrained ring-shear tests on the saturated samples showed that the sample is highly liquefiable, and liquefaction failure could have been triggered in the debris deposits by a very small impact from the displaced soil mass of the initial failure. In addition, laboratory tests simulating the impacts on the debris deposits at natural water content, i.e., unsaturated (at the survey time, 2 days after the failure) showed that although shear failure could be caused by the assumed impact force, the displaced soils stopped after a few centimeters displacement, indicating that existence of a saturated zone in debris deposits is prerequisite for this kind of failure.     

Mechanism of two rapid and long-runout landslides in the 16 April 2016 Kumamoto earthquake using a ring-shear apparatus and computer simulation (LS-RAPID)

Around hundred landslides were triggered by the Kumamoto earthquakes in April 2016, causing fatalities and serious damage to properties in Minamiaso village, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The landslides included many rapid and long-runout landslides which were responsible for much of the damage. To understand the mechanism of these earthquake-triggered landslides, we carried out field investigations with an unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain DSM and took samples from two major landslides (Takanodai landslide and Aso-ohashi landslide) to measure parameters of the initiation and the motion of landslides. A series of ring-shear tests and computer simulations were conducted using a measured Kumamoto earthquake acceleration record from KNet station KMM005, 10 km west of Aso-ohashi landslide. The research results supported our assumed mechanism of sliding-surface liquefaction for the rapid and long-runout motion of these landslides.     

A complex earth slide–earth flow induction by the heavy rainfall in July 2006, Okaya City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan

A seasonal rain front (Baiu front) accompanied a long-term accumulation of precipitation propagated over the wide areas of the main island of Japan during 15–24 July 2006. In Okaya City, Nagano Prefecture, several flow-type landslides occurred in the early morning of 19 July 2006, claiming eight lives. Among these landslides, a most peculiar complex earth slide–earth flow occurred on a north gentle slope of the upstream portion of the Motosawagawa River. In the source area, volcanoclastic soils overlying tuffaceous rocks at about 4-m depth slid due to the prolonged precipitation that raised the water table level in the soil. Along with the travel path, the failed materials fluidized causing the liquefaction of the volcanoclastic soils underlain by volcanic black ash soils. The resulting flow spread over a wide area up to the final deposition. Constant volume box-shear tests on undisturbed volcanoclastic soil specimens taken from the source area showed effective normal stress tended to decrease during shearing. The ring shear tests on saturated disturbed specimens produced the large loss of shear resistance, which may explain the fluidized motion of the complex landslide.     

Participants in the Fourth World Landslide Forum and call for ICL members,supporters, and associates

The ANNEX to the 2017 Ljubljana Declaration on Landslide Risk Reduction described in the “Preface” section of this issue is the list of participants (by organizations) in the Fourth World Landslide Forum. In this article, emphasis is put on this list of organizations as they are expected to be the key components for the Fifth World Landslide Forum 2020 in Kyoto, Japan. The participants in the Fourth World Landslide Forum 2017 adopted the 2017 Ljubljana Declaration on Landslide Risk Reduction. They further endorsed the concept of the Kyoto 2020 Commitment for Global Promotion of Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risk. The commitment aims to establish a long-term, wider, and stronger network after WLF5 2020 among three membership categories, namely, the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) full members/supporters/associates, ICL-supporting organizations (UN and international global organizations) and ICL-supporting governments, and ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025. This article introduces three categories of ICL memberships and calls for participation.     

Mechanism of creep movement caused by landslide activity and underground erosion in crystalline schist, Shikoku Island, southwestern Japan

The mechanism of creep movement of the Zentoku landslide in crystalline schist has not been studied in detail because of the steepness of the slope, very slow movement, low population density and complex topographic and geologic characteristics. Sassa et al. (1980: Proc. INTERPRAEVENT 1, 85–106) and Sassa (1984: Proc. 4th International Symp. on Landslides, Toronto, vol. 2, pp. 179–184; 1985. Geotechnical classification of landslides, Proc. 4th International Conference and Field Workshop on Landslides, Tokyo, pp. 31–40; 1989: Landslide News, Japan Landslide Society, No. 3, pp. 21–24) monitored landslide movement and groundwater level at the Zentoku landslide on Shikoku Island, southwestern Japan, and suggested that the mechanism may be caused by underground erosion. To study the influence of underground erosion at this site, continual monitoring of suspended sediment and water discharge from a groundwater outlet (i.e. a spring) was implemented. The locations of groundwater flow paths were determined, as were the amounts of discharged sediment. Slope deformation was monitored by means of a borehole inclinometer. The conclusions were as follows: (1) the flow paths were found to be on or above the shear zones in which underground erosion has occurred; (2) in addition to being a result of precipitation and groundwater discharge, sediment discharge is affected by landslide activity; and (3) the mechanism of creep movement is an interrelated chain process that combines underground erosion caused by landslide activity with landslide activity caused by underground erosion. Thus, landslide activity increases erosion susceptibility and transportation of soils within the mass, and underground erosion causes instability of the landslide mass, in turn.

This mechanism can explain the observed phenomenon that the Zentoku landslide not only moves actively during heavy rain, but also continues to creep throughout the year.