Urban landslide monitoring by combined use of multiple methodologies - a case study on Sv. Anton town, Slovakia

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe employed integrated methods to assess the landslide movement in Sv. Anton town in the Western Carpathians Neogene Volcanic Field (Central Slovakia). The integrated diagnostics required study of the landslide kinematic activity by a combination of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) imaging from November 2013 to March 2015. A topographic model with 2-cm accuracy was constructed from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) photogrammetry. Continuous spatial datasets of movement and displacement field vectors were interpolated from the measured movements over the entire study period. Although deformation studies in Slovakia have a long-term tradition, complex interdisciplinary studies in urbanized areas are still lacking. This inspired our main objectives: to identify landslide kinematics and to reconstruct and define the rates of annual landslide movement obtained from geodetic measurement at the monitoring points. Our results demonstrate how landslide integrated diagnostics contribute to the detection of slope instability, with a maximum velocity of 60.82 mm/yr during the summer period. The precipitation effects are consistent with the Sv. Anton landslide displacement acceleration, and the following increases in total monthly precipitations are staggering compared to long-term monthly averages: July precipitation increased by 175.3%, August by 203.3%, and September by 198.1%.