Landslide hazard mapping during a large scale earthquake

Abstract

This paper reports a method to make hazard maps of sediment disasters resulting from an earthquake and following heavy rainfall for the entire region of Gunma prefecture, Japan. Firstly, we identified the slopes in the study area, which are susceptible to large-scale landslides and land failures during an earthquake with a magnitude of seven on the Richter scale. To analyze the sheer volume of the data, we employed a statistical method to evaluate the susceptibility, mainly considering geomorphologic conditions. Secondly, we extracted mudflow and slope failure susceptible areas and potential flooding zones resulting from a damming at a river triggered by the earthquake and heavy rainfall, and we identified the settlements which would be isolated by the road disruption caused by the sediment disasters. As the result, 359 settlements were classified as potential isolation areas. Combining the above-mentioned susceptibility maps, we obtained two types of sediment disaster hazard maps of the study area, depicting the potential hazards which would occur during the earthquake and the disasters which would be caused by heavy rainfall following the quake, respectively. These hazard maps and the disaster information would be useful for the regional disaster prevention planning and countermeasures in the future.