Relationship between landslides and mountain development—Integrating geospatial statistics and a new long-term database

Abstract

Development in mountainous areas is inevitable in countries with high population densities, but the actual relationship between development and landslides remains uncertain. Clarifying the key current or historical factors resulting in landslides is crucial for hazard prevention and mitigation. This study focused on the Shihmen Reservoir catchment in Taiwan. Two combinations of explanatory variables in five different years (1946, 1971, 2001, 2004, and 2012) collected from a geodatabase and digital archives were used to conduct proximity and discrete logistic regression analyses. The results demonstrate that landslides increased dramatically from 1946 to 2012 in the catchment area. The proximity and overlapping of human development with landslides increased. However, the logistic regression results indicated that variation in susceptibility to landslides was due to natural causes, with the exception of historical deforestation and newly constructed road systems. Therefore, well-recovered historical woodland sites might currently be landslide-prone areas. We suggest that cumulative historical events should be considered as explanatory variables in future landslide prediction analysis.

Landslides and Cropland Abandonment in China’s Mountainous Areas: Spatial Distribution, Empirical Analysis and Policy Implications

“…Figure 1 also shows the land use feedbacks in the influences of the natural environment. Changes in land use drive changes in hazard distribution [6,[34][35][36][37]39]. More specifically, effective land management helps mitigate soil erosion [37,39].…”

“…In particular, in mountainous areas, landslides are frequently caused by increased rainfall [1]. Landslides manifest as mountain attachments (e.g., rocks, debris and earth) sliding downward with gravity [5] that pose a great threat to the lives and property of residents [6][7][8][9][10][11]. Between 1990 and 2005, landslides accounted for 4.8% of the total number of global disasters [7].…”

Studies on the causes of landslides for mountainous regions in central region of Vietnam

“…Landcover: According to Khan, Shafique [4], Land cover has a strong influence on the distribution of landslides. An evidence that good vegetation cover would work effectively to retain water generation, reduce erosion and then improve the stability of the area [5]. In a recent study, Reichenbach, Rossi [2] have suggested an equal contribution weight to landslide between land cover and precipitation.…”

“…Paola Reichenbach et al (2018) classed 23 landslide impact factors into five groups of causatives which are: geological, hydrological, land cover, morphological and other factors. Nevertheless, the proportion of contribution of the causative factors to landslide occurrence is different depending on spatial, temporal distributions of the event [1,2,3,4,5]. Recent studies which focus on Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan indicate that duration and magnitude of rainfall are primary causatives of landslides in mountainous areas [3,5].…”

“…Nevertheless, the proportion of contribution of the causative factors to landslide occurrence is different depending on spatial, temporal distributions of the event [1,2,3,4,5]. Recent studies which focus on Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan indicate that duration and magnitude of rainfall are primary causatives of landslides in mountainous areas [3,5]. Once, rainfall runoff entering topsoil which surfaces layer with a loose structure in a multi-day period combined with terrain slope would lead to destabilization and landslide in this layer.…”