Human–environment interactions in residential areas susceptible to landsliding: the Flemish Ardennes case study

Abstract

Studies on landslide susceptibility and landslide risk generally start from the assumption that mainly natural factors control the occurrence of landslides. The role of human activity is considered less important. We investigated the role of human-environment interactions in the Flemish Ardennes, Flanders' most landslide-susceptible region. The establishment of a detailed landslide inventory brought insight into the spatial occurrence of landslides and into the different landslide types and characteristics. A statistical model, i.e. logistic regression, allowed the significance of environmental factors controlling landslide occurrence to be determined, and a landslide susceptibility map to be produced. Being a residential area, however, the Flemish Ardennes is a region where humans play an active role with regard to landslide risk. Although the location of many archaeological sites in this area is known, almost no archaeological sites are found on landslide-susceptible hillslopes. This might indicate that in prehistorical and historical times humans were more familiar with local environmental characteristics and avoided unstable hillslopes. Comparison of topographic maps , on the contrary, indicate that over the last 250 years buildings and other infrastructures have been constructed on old landslides. Given that humans are living, working and driving on or close to unstable hillslopes, the landslide risk has therefore increased. The landslide inventory map and the landslide susceptibility map are important tools for landslide risk reduction. Here 'science meets policy' , as both maps allow linking construction norms and other mitigation measures to hillslopes already affected by landslides and to susceptibility classes with very high, high and moderate landslide susceptibility.

The landslide database for Germany: Closing the gap at national level

“…Landslide databases are valuable sources of information for research on landslides, not only in terms of their causes, types, and processes (e.g., Pelletier et al, 1997;Guzzetti et al, 2009;Damm et al, 2010;Rossi et al, 2010;Hurst et al, 2013;Tonini et al, 2014), but also the impacts and risks associated with them (e.g., Guzzetti et al, 2003;Damm, 2006;Hilker et al, 2009;Van Den Eeckhaut et al, 2010;Neuhäuser et al, 2012;Klose et al, 2014a;Klose et al, in press). A landslide database, often also referred to as landslide inventory, is a systematic collection of information on past landslides (Hervás, 2013).…”

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

“…Given the fact that collapsed pipes are generally only temporarily visible in the landscape, the piping inventory represents a rather limited time frame. It was therefore decided to also use the susceptibility maps of both CP (Verachtert et al ., ; five susceptibility classes, 10 × 10 m) and LS (four susceptibility classes, 10 × 10 m; Van Den Eeckhaut et al ., , ) for further analysis. These models represent valuable information to test the linkage between landslides and piping.…”

Geomorphic hazards in south‐west Saudi Arabia: The human–environmental nexus

“…Current disaster risk‐reduction strategies tend to focus on individual hazards. For example, innovative landslide risk assessments (e.g., Van Den Eeckhaut et al., ) and models (e.g., Sidle & Wu, ; Wu & Sidle, ) have been developed for various mountain regions, but linking landslides on hillslopes that are disconnected in time with the occurrence of debris flows in low‐gradient channels is challenging, particularly in dry regions where geomorphic processes are less active. Accounting for the effects of management practices like mountain roads, residential development, vegetation conversion and overgrazing create more difficult challenges.…”