The size, distribution, and mobility of landslides caused by the 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal

Roback, Kevin; Clark, Marin K.; West, A. Joshua; Zekkos, Dimitrios; Li, Gen; Gallen, Sean F.; Chamlagain, Deepak; Godt, Jonathan W.

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.01.030

Cited by 380 publications

(478 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…For example, Xu (2015) described eight separate landslide inventories compiled after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. After the 2015 Nepal earthquakes, there was a 5-fold increase in landslide numbers between the inventories reported by Kargel et al (2016;4312), Martha et al (2016;15 551), Roback et al (2017;24 915), and Tiwari et al (2017;14 670). While some of these inventories were created in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, their use for scientific purposes nevertheless assumes complete coverage of the affected area.…”

Section: Mapping Landslides After Earthquakesmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Initial searches for landslide dams were therefore paramount, and dams that were identified were monitored until breached. This effort ran in parallel to several other initiatives that have subsequently been reported (Kargel et al, 2016;Roback et al, 2017;Tiwari et al, 2017).…”

Section: Initial Landslide Identification Effortsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mainshock, which generated the majority of landslides (Martha et al, 2016;Roback et al, 2017), occurred on the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) with M w = 7.8 and an epicenter in Gorkha District in western Nepal. The rupture propagated eastwards, impacting areas up to ∼ 140 km from the epicenter, with additional large aftershocks concentrated near the eastern end of the mainshock rupture plane Galetzka et al, 2015).…”

Section: Initial Landslide Identification Effortsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Images to the north and east were therefore captured with relatively high incidence angle off-nadir. This resulted in significant topographic occlusion and image distortion, exacerbated by the steep topography (Roback et al, 2017).…”

Section: Image and Sensor Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regional-to local-scale landslide inventory maps tend to document landslides as polygons, which can be used to understand impact zones or to separate source from deposit (Guzzetti, 2004;Guzzetti et al, 2012). Polygons are required where assessments of landslide area and volume, sediment yield, or connectivity of landslide deposits to the fluvial network are needed (e.g., Roback et al, 2017). The focus at the BGS was on mapping polygons, while the initial focus of the Durham effort was the collection of point data, which were subsequently expanded to polylines.…”

Section: Mapping Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Satellite-based emergency mapping using optical imagery: experience and reflections from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes

Williams

Rosser

Kincey

et al. 2018

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Landslides triggered by large earthquakes in mountainous regions contribute significantly to overall earthquake losses and pose a major secondary hazard that can persist for months or years. While scientific investigations of coseismic landsliding are increasingly common, there is no protocol for rapid (hours-to-days) humanitarian-facing landslide assessment and no published recognition of what is possible and what is useful to compile immediately after the event. Drawing on the 2015 M w 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal, we consider how quickly a landslide assessment based upon manual satellite-based emergency mapping (SEM) can be realistically achieved and review the decisions taken by analysts to ascertain the timeliness and type of useful information that can be generated. We find that, at present, many forms of landslide assessment are too slow to generate relative to the speed of a humanitarian response, despite increasingly rapid access to high-quality imagery. Importantly, the value of information on landslides evolves rapidly as a disaster response develops, so identifying the purpose, timescales, and end users of a post-earthquake landslide assessment is essential to inform the approach taken. It is clear that discussions are needed on the form and timing of landslide assessments, and how best to present and share this information, before rather than after an earthquake strikes. In this paper, we share the lessons learned from the Gorkha earthquake, with the aim of informing the approach taken by scientists to understand the evolving landslide hazard in future events and the expectations of the humanitarian community involved in disaster response.

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