Spatial variation in geotechnical properties and topographic attributes on the different types of shallow landslides in a loess catchment, China

Abstract

Shallow landslides play an important role in influencing topographic attributes and geotechnical properties. The landslides inventory is mapped using global position system (GPS) and field mapping. Three types of landslides, i.e. slide, creep and fall, are shown in the landslide inventory. Based on a post-landsliding digital elevation model (DEM), main topographic attributes were generated in Arcgis. To assess their frequency distributions, these maps are overlaid with the spatial distributions of all landslides and different types of landslides in geographic information system (GIS), respectively. The spatial analyses reveal that the local surface topographic attributes after landslide have a close relation with the landslide movement type, and different types of landslides always result in different local topographic attributes. In addition, 10 exploratory shafts conducted on the different types of landslides and landscapes were excavated, and the undisturbed soil samples are collected up to 7–9 m depth in the Malan layer, then the main geotechnical properties of the samples are measured. These data show that the vertical spatial variation in geotechnical properties is closely related to the different landslide movement types and landscape features. It is important to better understand the geomorphologic process and geohazard associated with shallow landslides in the Chinese Loess Plateau.

Keywords:

• shallow landslides
• movement types
• geotechnical properties
• topographic attributes
• loess catchment

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by Natural Key Basic Research Development Plan of China (2014CB744701 and 2014CB744703), the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41130753).

Funding

Opening fund of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (Chengdu University of Technology) [grant number SKLGP2013K020], and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number lzujbky-2013-117 and lzujbky-2013-m01]. Finally, the authors’ special thanks go to the editor and referees of this paper; whose valuable comments led to substantial improvement of this paper.