Analysis of landslide susceptibility and potential impacts on infrastructures and settlement areas (a case from the southeastern region of Türkiye)

Abstract

Landslides have harmful effects not only on buildings but also on infrastructure and the natural environment. While they are typically triggered by natural events, such as heavy rainfalls and earthquakes, landslides can also be induced by anthropogenic activities, such as excavation and blasting. In certain regions, gigantic paleo-landslides exist, but triggering them is extremely difficult. However, triggering secondary landslides in gigantic paleo-landslides is relatively easy compared to the main corpus. The main purpose of this study was to produce a susceptibility map in a region in southeastern Türkiye and to discuss the impact of petroleum seismological investigation concerning the trigger of the landslides. For this purpose, a landslide inventory was compiled using geospatial data sets and field observations and used for landslide susceptibility mapping with the Random Forest algorithm. The accelerations sourced from blasting were also measured and the run-out distances were determined. A run-out distance map was produced using inverse distance weights. The study presents comprehensive insights by integrating a landslide susceptibility map and run-out distance map. It evaluates the impact of blasting on landslides through in-situ measurements and slope stability analyses. Findings indicate that no triggering effect on landslides was observed if the dynamite quantity remains below 4 kg and the blasting distance exceeds 10 m from the landslide.