Abstract
In most countries, landslides have caused severe socioeconomic impacts on people, cities, industrial establishments, and lifelines, such as highways, railways, and communication network systems. Socioeconomic losses due to slope failures are very high and they have been growing as the built environment expands into unstable hillside areas under the pressures of growing populations. Human activities as the construction of buildings, transportation routes, dams, and artificial canals have often been a major factor for the increasing damage due to slope failures. When recovery actions are not durable from an economic point of view, increasing the population’s awareness is the key strategy to reduce the effects of natural and anthropogenic events. Starting from the case study of the Pan-American Highway (the Ecuadorian part), this article shows a multi-approach strategy for infrastructure monitoring. The combined use of (i) DInSAR technique for detection of slow ground deformations, (ii) field survey activities, and (iii) the QPROTO tool for analysis of slopes potentially prone to collapse allowed us to obtain a first cognitive map to better characterize 22 km of the highway between the cities of Cuenca and Azogues. This study is the primary step in the development of a landslide awareness perspective to manage risk related to landslides along infrastructure corridors, increasing user safety and providing stakeholders with a management system to plan the most urgent interventions and to ensure the correct functionality of the infrastructure.
Highlights
Road networks play a key role in the economic and social development of a society, such that the maintenance of safety conditions for users is the most important challenge for the decision-makers and stakeholders
Pan-American taken into consideration to interpret potential slope instability affecting the Pan-AmericanHighway
The paper presents a cognitive tool depicting slope dynamics in terms of actively moving and potential landslides affecting users’ safety and the correct functionality of a segment of the Pan-American Highway which connects the cities of Cuenca and Azogues
Summary
Road networks play a key role in the economic and social development of a society, such that the maintenance of safety conditions for users is the most important challenge for the decision-makers and stakeholders. Landslide interaction with populated areas and transportation infrastructures may induce the loss of human lives and meaningful economic damage [1], both reducing road-user safety and modifying the roadway geometry [2]. In these scenarios, the detection of critical sectors along infrastructure corridors is essential [3]. The detection of critical sectors along infrastructure corridors is essential [3] These considerations are emphasized by the lack of awareness concerning natural hazards [4].
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