Catchment-scale impacts of shallow landslides on stream water chemistry

Abstract

Catchment water quality plays an important role in ecosystem and water resource management in mountainous areas. Shallow landslides triggered by earthquakes or heavy rainfall can cause a sudden and long-term deterioration in stream water quality by releasing contaminants into streams. Although many studies have been undertaken on the relationship between a single landslide and the water chemistry of a nearby river, little is known about the impact of densely distributed shallow landslides on stream water chemistry at the catchment scale. To this end, this study determined the major ion concentrations and isotopic compositions of stream water along with the shallow landslide area/catchment area ratio (LCR) in 37 headwater subcatchments in the southern part of Hokkaido, Japan, where an earthquake caused more than 6000 shallow landslides on September 6, 2018. In subcatchments with a high LCR, stream water exhibited significantly higher Ca2+ and HCO3− concentrations, while there was no correlation between the LCR and concentrations of Na+ and Cl−. The δ18O and δD values of stream water plotted between the local meteoric water lines of summer and winter precipitation, indicating that they originated from meteoric water. Shallow landslides formed sliding surfaces, landslide deposits, and landslide-dammed lakes, which enhanced the interaction between the surface soil and stream water, leading to Ca–HCO3 type water. The results showed that shallow-landslide-driven changes in stream water quality could be linearly approximated by the fraction of the landslide area at the catchment scale, which is a more versatile approach than the local framework of a single landslide and a nearby stream. In future research, these findings could be combined with a slope stability model and the background climatic, geological, topographical, and water quality conditions of a watershed to evaluate water pollution triggered by shallow landslides at the catchment scale.