Estimation of regional material yield from coastal landslides based on historical digital terrain modelling

High‐resolution historical (1942) and recent (1994) digital terrain models were derived from aerial photographs along the Big Sur coastline in central California to measure the long‐term volume of material that enters the nearshore environment. During the 52‐year measurement time period, an average of 21 000 ± 3100 m³ km^?1 a^?1 of material was eroded from nine study sections distributed along the coast, with a low yield of 1000 ± 240 m³ km^?1 a^?1 and a high of 46 700 ± 7300 m³ km^?1 a^?1. The results compare well with known volumes from several deep‐seated landslides in the area and suggest that the processes by which material is delivered to the coast are episodic in nature. In addition, a number of parameters are investigated to determine what influences the substantial variation in yield along the coast. It is found that the magnitude of regional coastal landslide sediment yield is primarily related to the physical strength of the slope‐forming material. Coastal Highway 1 runs along the lower portion of the slope along this stretch of coastline, and winter storms frequently damage the highway. The California Department of Transportation is responsible for maintaining this scenic highway while minimizing the impacts to the coastal ecosystems that are part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. This study provides environmental managers with critical background data on the volumes of material that historically enter the nearshore from landslides, as well as demonstrating the application of deriving historical digital terrain data to model landscape evolution. Published in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial interaction between collapsed pipes and landslides in hilly regions with loess‐derived soils

While most studies focus on the effect of soil pipes on hillslope stability, this present study investigates the impact of landsliding on pipe development. It is hypothesized that poorly drained active and dormant landslides change the hillslope hydrology through (i) surface flow obstruction, by changing topography, as well as (ii) subsurface flow obstruction by tilting less‐permeable clay‐rich substrates. Hence, new preferential flow paths are created at reverse slopes within the landslide zone and at the boundary of the landslide, enhancing pipe formation. This study aims at a better understanding of the interaction between collapsed pipe (CP) occurrence and landslide (LS) occurrence in the Flemish Ardennes (Belgium) by comparing their respective spatial patterns. At least 24.5% of the 139 sites with CP were related to the occurrence of an observed LS. Poorly drained LS may create favourable conditions for pipe development. Outside LS, natural and anthropogenic (e.g. broken field drains, road drainage) causes may result in concentrated subsurface flow, resulting in pipe development. No evidence was found that pipe development enhanced LS, probably because the subsurface drainage discharge generated upslope of the LS is too low. Even when pipes become blocked, it is more likely that new pipes develop and new collapses occur than they trigger or reactivate LS. A conceptual model is presented summarizing all elements that influence piping erosion in the Flemish Ardennes, including the role of LS. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

2013年四川省芦山“4.20”7.0级强烈地震触发滑坡

2013年4月20日,四川省芦山县发生了MS7.0地震.文中简要介绍了芦山地震的基本情况与芦山地震区历史地震及其相关地震滑坡情况.依据2008年汶川地震滑坡与地震动峰值加速度(PGA)的空间关系,对芦山地震滑坡大体分布范围进行了推测.根据地震滑坡分类学,将芦山地震滑坡分为破坏型滑坡、连贯型滑坡、流滑型滑坡3大类.其中,破坏型滑坡包括岩质崩塌、岩质滑动、岩质崩滑、土质崩塌、土质滑动等5类;连贯型滑坡包括土质坍塌与慢土流2类;流滑型滑坡为快速流滑.破坏型滑坡如岩质崩塌、岩石滑动、土质崩塌这3类是芦山地震滑坡中最常见的类型.基于震后可利用的高分辨率航片,初步解译得到3 883处滑坡位置点数据.最后,从余震对滑坡的影响,芦山地震滑坡与邻区地震滑坡对比分析,对后续基于高分辨率遥感影像的滑坡精细解译的启示等3个方面开展了分析与讨论.     

A Decision Support System for the Evaluation of Eco-engineering Strategies for Slope Protection

A decision support system (DSS) has been developed to assist expert and non-expert users in the evaluation and selection of eco-engineering strategies for slope protection. This DSS combines a qualitative hazard assessment of erosion and mass movements with a detailed catalogue of eco-engineering strategies for slope protection of which the suitability is evaluated in relation to the data entered. The slope decision support system (SDSS) is a knowledge based DSS in which knowledge is stored in frames containing rules that can evaluate the available information for a project, stored as project specific information (PSI) in a data file. The advantages of such a system are that it accepts incomplete information and that the qualitative nature of the information does not instil the user with a sense of unjustified exactitude. By its multidisciplinary and progressive nature, the DSS will be of value during the initial stages of an eco-engineering project when data collection and the potential of different eco-engineering strategies are considered. The accent of the output of the DSS is on the application of eco-engineering strategies for slope protection as an environmentally-friendly solution aiding sustainable development. For its acceptance within the engineering community, the DSS needs to prove its predictive capacity. Therefore, its performance has been benchmarked against successful and unsuccessful cases of slope stabilisation using eco-engineering. The target audience and the areas of application of this DSS are reviewed and the strategies for further development in this area suggested.     

甘肃岷县永光村滑坡特征及其成因研究

泥流型黄土滑坡发生的条件除一般滑坡具有的条件之外,还应包括特殊的状态因素、触发因素及相应的驱动剪应力条件。通过对甘肃岷县永光村滑坡的现场勘察和实地调查,分析其成因,结果表明：永光村滑坡平面形态虽与泥流类似,但其具有滑坡形成区以及滑坡发生所需要的特殊的地形地貌、岩土体性质以及水文地质条件。永光村滑坡发育于沟道上游的黄土塬地带,临空面较大,滑坡剪出口位置高,具有较高的势能,滑坡体的主要岩土体是马兰黄土,黄土具有大孔隙结构,垂直节理发育,有利于地表水的下渗。下部为新近系泥岩,渗透系数低,为一相对隔水层。长期灌溉导致地下水位较高,黄土层存在软弱夹层,地下水位上升,导致其软化饱和,强度迅速降低,形成潜在滑动面。永光村滑坡亦具有圆弧形的滑坡后壁,滑坡后缘顶部分布有多条拉张裂缝,在前期发生降雨的外部条件下,在岷县“7·22”地震诱发下,发生了低角度、快速和远程的泥流型黄土滑坡,滑体在冲出沟口后形成了扇形堆积区。永光村滑坡是一种特殊的地震引发的泥流型黄土滑坡。目前,泥流型黄土滑坡的研究还处在探索阶段,是作为黄土滑坡分类的一种补充,建议进一步加强对此类灾害发生机理及其稳定性计算方法的深入研究。     

Slopewash,surface runoff and fine-litter transport in forest and landslide scars in humid-tropical steeplands,luquillo experimental forest,Puerto Rico

Rainfall, slopewash (the erosion of soil particles), surface runoff and fine-litter transport steepland sites in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico (18° 20’ N, 65° 45’ W) were measured from 1991 to 1995. Hillslopes underlain by (1) Cretaceous tuffaceous sandstone and silstone in subtropical rain (tanonuco) forest with vegetation recovering from Hurricane Hugo (1989), and (2) Tertiary quartz diorite in subtropical lower mantone wet (colorado and dwarf) forest with undisturbed forest canopy were compared to recent landslide scars. Monthly surface runoff on these very steep hillslopes (24° to 43°) was only 0·2 to 0·5 per cent of monthly rainfall. Slopewash was higher in sandy loam soils whose parent material is quartz diorite (averaging 46 g m⁻² a⁻¹) than in silty clay loam soils derived from tuffaceous sandstone and siltstone where the average was 9 g m⁻² a⁻¹. Annual slopewash of 100 to 349 g m⁻² on the surfaces of two recent, small landslide scars was measured initially but slopewash decreased to only 3 to 4 g m⁻² a⁻¹ by the end of the study. The mean annual mass of fine litter (mainly leaves and twigs) transported downslope at the forested sites ranged from 5 to 8 g m⁻² and was lower at the tabonuco forest site, where post-Hurricane Hugo recovery is still in progress. Mean annual fine-litter transport was 2·5 g m⁻² on the two landslide scars. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Epigenetic gorges in fluvial landscapes

Epigenetic gorges form when channels that have been laterally displaced during episodes of river blockage or aggradation incise down into bedrock spurs or side‐walls of the former valley rather than excavating unconsolidated fills and reinhabiting the buried paleovalley. Valley‐filling events that promote epigenetic gorges can be localized, such as a landslide dam or an alluvial/debris flow fan deposit at a tributary junction, or widespread, such as fluvial aggradation in response to climate change or fluctuating base‐level. The formation of epigenetic gorges depends upon the competition between the resistance to transport, strength and roughness of valley‐filling sediments and a river's ability to sculpt and incise bedrock. The former affects the location and lateral mobility of a channel incising into valley‐filling deposits; the latter determines rates of bedrock incision should the path of the incising channel intersect with bedrock that is not the paleovalley bottom. Epigenetic gorge incision, by definition, post‐dates the incision that originally cut the valley. Strath terraces and sculpted bedrock walls that form in relation to epigenetic gorges should not be used to directly infer river incision induced by tectonic activity or climate variability. Rather, they are indicative of the variability of short‐term bedrock river incision and autogenic dynamics of actively incising fluvial landscapes. The rate of bedrock incision associated with an epigenetic gorge can be very high (>1 cm/yr), typically orders of magnitude higher than both short‐ and long‐term landscape denudation rates. In the context of bedrock river incision and landscape evolution, epigenetic gorges force rivers to incise more bedrock, slowing long‐term incision and delaying the adjustment of rivers to regional tectonic and climatic forcing. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Process identification at a slow‐moving landslide in the Vorarlberg Alps

A fine‐grained slope that exhibits slow movement rates was investigated to understand how geohydrological processes contribute to a consecutive development of mass movements in the Vorarlberg Alps, Austria. For that purpose intensive hydrometeorological, hydrogeological and geotechnical observations as well as surveying of surface movement rates were conducted during 1998–2001. Subsurface water dynamics at the creeping slope turned out to be dominated by a three‐dimensional pressure system. The pressure reaction is triggered by fast infiltration of surface water and subsequent lateral water flow in the south‐western part of the hillslope. The related pressure signal was shown to propagate further downhill, causing fast reactions of the piezometric head at 5·5 m depth on a daily time scale. The observed pressure reactions might belong to a temporary hillslope water body that extends further downhill. The related buoyancy forces could be one of the driving forces for the mass movement. A physically based hydrological model was adopted to model simultaneously surface and subsurface water dynamics including evapotranspiration and runoff production. It was possible to reproduce surface runoff and observed pressure reactions in principle. However, as soil hydraulic functions were only estimated on pedotransfer functions, a quantitative comparison between observed and simulated subsurface dynamics is not feasible. Nevertheless, the results suggest that it is possible to reconstruct important spatial structures based on sparse observations in the field which allow reasonable simulations with a physically based hydrological model. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

西昌海河流域大中型滑坡发育特征及其成灾规律分析

海河流域以邛海湖为核心,呈树枝状展布,将美丽的西昌城环保其中。受地质环境条件所限,流域内地质灾害频发,危害严重。随着近年来以图幅为单元的高精度地质灾害调查工作的开展,发现海河流域内10万立方米以上的大中型滑坡数量众多,其发生往往造成严重的灾害事件。本文以典型实例为基础,研究分析了海河流域内大中型滑坡的发育特征,归纳总结了其主要危害形式及成灾规律,对区域内地质灾害研究与防治具有一定的科学意义。分析结果表明：（1）海河流域内大中型滑坡主要发育在攀西红层中,地层岩性特征影响着滑坡的滑动失稳方式;（2）断层及其诱发的劈理常构成滑坡边界或滑动面,进而控制滑坡变形;（3）海河流域内大中型滑坡多为降雨、洪水、地震等多因素耦合诱发的;（4）受人类工程活动因素影响,海河流域内大中型滑坡灾害表现出直接危害小、间接影响大,且链式效应明显的成灾规律。     

Undrained dynamic-loading ring-shear apparatus and its application to landslide dynamics

Landslides are gravitational mass movements of rock, debris or earth. Some move very slowly, thus conforming to the field of statics, but some move rapidly. Study of the initiation and motion of rapid landslides needs to develop Landslide Dynamics involving dynamic loading and dynamic generation/dissipation of excess pore-water pressure. New developments in science can be facilitated by new technological advances. This study aimed to develop a new apparatus that can geotechnically simulate the formation of the shear zone and the following long and rapid shear displacement that occurs in high-velocity landslides. Professor K. Sassa and his colleagues at DPRI (Disaster Prevention Research Institute), Kyoto University, have worked to develop an undrained dynamic-loading ring-shear apparatus for this purpose. A series of different types of apparatus (DPRI-3, 4, 5, 6, 7) have been developed from 1992 to the present. This paper describes the development of this apparatus and its application to the study of earthquake-induced landslides and the latest landslide-triggered debris flow in Japan. Also, tests of the latest version (DPRI-7) with a transparent shear box for direct observation of the shear zone during a rapid shearing are described.