Abstract
The spatio-temporal distribution of geological hazards, including collapses, landslides, and debris flows, in Shaanxi province, China was studied based on data from 1951 to 2018. The potential impact factors, including the geomorphologic types, rivers, roads, rainfall, and earthquakes, were analyzed using Random Forests. The results indicated that most hazards occurred in summer (i.e., July–September) and were triggered by rainstorms. The freeze–thaw effect had a considerable contribution to hazards in the north. Spatially, most hazards in the north occurred in valley terraces of the Loess Plateau, while medium-relief terrane (relief ranged from 500 to 1000 m) in the southern Qinling Mountains were hazard-prone areas. The collapses and landslides were mainly affected by human factors in Northern Shaanxi, whereas in Southern Shaanxi geomorphology was the primary factor. Permeability was a dominant factor for debris flows. In addition, the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake had a remarkable influence on the spatial distribution of hazards. In contrast, for the situation in the Sichuan province, which was close to the earthquake epicenter, the Wenchuan earthquake triggered many collapse and landslide events in the southwest regions of Shaanxi province only on 12 May 2008. The thresholds for the three hazard types in the north and south regions were almost the same despite their distinctly different geologic characteristics. Through a sensitivity analysis, we found an appropriate dry period of 12 h for the area.
Highlights
Published: 23 October 2021Geological hazards such as landslides, rock falls, debris flows, ground fissures, and subsidence, often threaten the safety of human life and property [1]
Understanding the spatio-temporal distribution of geological hazards is of key importance for the risk assessment and prediction of future occurrences
We analyzed the spatio-temporal distribution of geological hazards in Shaanxi province
Summary
Published: 23 October 2021Geological hazards such as landslides, rock falls, debris flows, ground fissures, and subsidence, often threaten the safety of human life and property [1]. As one of the countries with some of the most damaging geological hazards in the world [2], China has reported an economic loss of USD 981.29 million and a total of 4718 deaths caused by 463 fatal landslide events during the period from 2004–2016 [3]. In the Loess Plateau region of China, 14,161 geological hazard events were recorded from 2005–2015 [4]. Petley (2012) [5] studied the spatio-temporal distribution of fatal landslides on a global scale in the period from 2004–2010. They identified the high hazards within China, South. Kirschbaum et al (2015) [2]
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