Natural Hazards and Disaster Assessment and Management Landslides

Introduction

Landslides are a sudden, short-lived geomorphic event that involves a rapid-to-slow descent of soil or rock in sloping terrains. They occur worldwide, often in conjunction with natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, or volcanic eruptions. Landslides can also be caused by excessive precipitation or human activities, such as deforestation or development that disturb natural slope stability.

Landslides in the United States alone cause $1 to $2 billion in property damage and over 25 fatalities per year. Posing threats to settlements and structures, landslides often result in catastrophic damage to highways, railways, waterways, and pipelines. According to the U.S. Transportation Research Board, annual costs for the repair of minor slope failures by state departments of transportation exceed $100 million.

To determine where protective measures are necessary, scientists and technicians produce landslide inventory and risk assessment maps for many areas around the world Landslides unfortunately, do not display a clear relationship between magnitude and frequency as do earthquakes and floods. Landslide studies are challenging to scientists, due to the difficulty to represent landslide hazards in quantitative terms over large areas.