Abstract
Roads can have a significant impact on the frequency of mass wasting events in mountainous areas. However, characterizing the extent and pervasiveness of mass movements over time has rarely been documented due to limitations in available data sources to consistently map such events. We monitored the evolution of a road network and assessed its effect on mass movements for a 11-year window in Arhavi, Turkey. The main road construction projects run in the area are associated with a hydroelectric power plant as well as other road extension works and are clearly associated with the vast majority (90.1%) of mass movements in the area. We also notice that the overall number and size of the mass movements are much larger than in the naturally occurring comparison area. This means that the sediment load originating from the anthropogenically induced mass movements is larger than its counterpart associated with naturally occurring landslides. Notably, this extra sediment load could cause river channel aggregation, reduce accommodation space and as a consequence, it could lead to an increase in the probability and severity of flooding along the river channel. This marks a strong and negative effect of human activities on the natural course of earth surface processes. We also compare frequency-area distributions of human-induced mass movements mapped in this study and co-seismic landslide inventories from the literature. By doing so, we aim to better understand the consequences of human effects on mass movements in a comparative manner. Our findings show that the damage generated by the road construction in terms of sediment loads to river channels is compatible with the possible effect of a theoretical earthquake with a magnitude greater than Mw = 6.0.
Highlights
Recent findings suggest that our planet has been going through a new geologic time, “Anthropocene,” in which human-driven changes dominate the Earth system and its geological records instead of natural processes (Lewis and Maslin 2015; Steffen et al 2015)
We labeled the rest of the roads constructed after 2010 as “Others.” Based on the identified roads, we mapped and labeled corresponding mass movements, which are mostly characterized by shallow, rotational slides (Fig. 4b)
To create these road and mass movement inventories, first, we mapped both roads and mass movements associated with hydroelectric power plant (HEPP) (Fig. 4)
Summary
Recent findings suggest that our planet has been going through a new geologic time, “Anthropocene,” in which human-driven changes dominate the Earth system and its geological records instead of natural processes (Lewis and Maslin 2015; Steffen et al 2015). Soil erosion in the “Anthropocene” is governed by the coupled effect of natural and human-induced soil erosion processes (Poesen 2018). In this context, we still need to better understand the interactions between these processes (Brown et al 2017)
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