Distribution law and susceptibility of geohazards across a gradient belt of the Western Sichuan Plateau

Across a gradient belt of the Western Sichuan Plateau,geohazards have seriously limited economic and social development.According to incomplete statistics,15,673 geohazards have been recorded in the study area.In order to mitigate the threat of geohazards to human engineering activities in the region,an overall understanding of the distribution pattern of geohazards and susceptibility assessment are necessary.In this paper,a gradient belt of the Western Sichuan Plateau and its zoning criteria were defined.Subsequently,on the basis of relief amplitude,distance to faults,rainfall,and human activities,three indicators of endogenic process were introduced:Bouguer gravity anomaly gradient,vertical deformation gradient,and horizontal deformation gradient.Thereafter,the distribution patterns of geohazards were investigated through mathematical statistics and ArcGIS software.By randomly selecting 10,449 hazards,a geohazard susceptibility map was generated using the Information Value(IV)model.Finally,the IV model was validated against 5224 hazards using the Area Under Curve(AUC)method.The results show that 47.6%of the geohazards were distributed in the zone of steep slope.Geohazards showed strong responses to distance to faults,human activities,and annual rainfall.The distribution of geohazards in the gradient belt of the Western Sichuan Plateau is more sensitive to vertical internal dynamics factors(such as vertical deformation gradient and Bouguer gravity anomaly gradient)without any apparent sensitivity to horizontal internal dynamics factors.The areas of high and very-high risk account for up to 32.22%,mainly distributed in the Longmenshan and Anning River faults.According to the AUC plot,the success rate of the IV model for generating the susceptibility map is 76%.This susceptibility map and geohazard distribution pattern can provide a reference for geological disaster monitoring,preparation of post-disaster emergency measures,and town planning.

Geohazards and risk assessment along highway in Sichuan Province, China

Geohazards along highways are the main natural hazards that could affect the safety and operation of highway systems.Understanding the risks faced by highways in areas affected by geohazards is an urgent problem to be solved.This study used historical geohazard events from Sichuan Province and highway network data to propose a geohazard risk index that reflects the risk geohazards along highways.Furthermore,this work applied the entropy method and expert scoring to calculate the weight of the index.The spatial distributions of landslides,debris flows,collapses,and unstable slopes along the highways were analysed based on ArcGIS spatial statistics,and the highway geohazard intensity index were obtained.The relationships between slope,rainfall,vegetation coverage,rock type,land use,and incision depth with geohazards were analysed,and the highway geohazard susceptibility index was calculated by the weighted information method.Based on the intensity and susceptibility index,we obtained a geohazard risk index which can better evaluate the risk of highways,and made a highway geohazard risk map to aid the prevention and mitigation of geohazards along highways and assist with highway network planning.

A comparative study of the main factors controlling geohazards induced by 10 strong earthquakes in Western China since the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008

Determining the main controlling factors of earthquake-triggered geohazards is a prerequisite for studying earthquake geohazards and post-disaster emergency response.By studying these factors,the geomorphic and geological factors controlling the nature,condition,and distribution of earthquake-induced geohazards can be analyzed.Such insights facilitate earthquake disaster prediction and emergency response planning.The authors combined field investigations and spatial data analysis to examine geohazards induced by seismic events,examining ten earthquakes including the Wenchuan,Yushu,Lushan events,to elucidate the main control factors of seismic geohazard.The authors observed that seismic geohazard occurrence is usually affected by many factors,among which active nature of the seismogenic fault,seismic peak ground acceleration(PGA),topographic slope and geomorphic height differences,and distance from the fault zone and river system are the most important.Compared with strike-slip earthquakes,thrust earthquakes induce more high-altitude and high-speed remote landslides,which can cause great harm.Slopes of 0°–40°are prone to secondary seismic geohazards,which are mainly concentrated 0–6 km from the river system.Secondary geohazards are not only related to seismogenic fault but also influenced by the associated faults in the earthquake area.The maximum seismic PGA and secondary seismic geohazard number are positively correlated,and the horizontal and vertical ground motions play leading and promoting roles in secondary geohazard formation,respectively.Through the research,the spatial distribution of seismic geohazards is predicted,providing a basis for the formulation of emergency response plans following disasters.

Marine Geohazards： Review and Future Perspective

With offshore resource exploration moving to the deep water, marine geohazards have been attracting attention from the academic and industry. Research achievements of marine geohazards were reviewed in this paper. We analyzed and discussed typical issues among marine geohazards, including coastal erosion, submarine slope failure, turbidity current and special hazards induced by gas hydrate dissociation, in terms of their definition, distribution, characteristics and case studies. Major international projects on marine geohazards headed by the United States, Europe, Japan and other international organizations are introduced as well. Three marine geohazard survey methods, including geophysical survey, geotechnical exploration and in-situ observation, were summarized with a brief description of each approach, respectively. Especially, the history of marine geohazard researches in China is briefly reviewed, showing the disparity between China and developed countries in the study of marine geohazards narrows gradually. The potential research tendency in future was suggested.

Deep-Sea Geohazards in the South China Sea

Various geological processes and features that might inflict hazards identified in the South China Sea by using new technologies and methods.These features include submarine landslides,pockmark fields,shallow free gas,gas hydrates,mud diapirs and earthquake tsunami,which are widely distributed in the continental slope and reefal islands of the South China Sea.Although the study and assessment of geohazards in the South China Sea came into operation only recently,advances in various aspects are evolving at full speed to comply with National Marine Strategy and‘the Belt and Road’Policy.The characteristics of geohazards in deep-water seafloor of the South China Sea are summarized based on new scientific advances.This progress is aimed to aid ongoing deep-water drilling activities and decrease geological risks in ocean development.

Quantitative assessment of the impact of earthquakeinduced geohazards on natural landscapes in Jiuzhaigou Valley

Many natural landscapes that lie in high mountain regions are highly susceptible to geological hazards, and their values and integrity are strongly threatened by the hazards. A preliminary framework was proposed to undertake a quantitative assessment of the impact of earthquake-induced geological hazards on the natural landscapes. Four factors reflecting the aesthetic value, ecological value, integrity of landscapes were selected to assess their vulnerability. The impact of earthquake-induced geological hazards on the landscapes is quantitatively expressed as the product of their vulnerability and resilience. The assessment framework was applied to Jiuzhaigou Valley which was severely struck by the Ms 7.0 earthquake on August 8, 2017. Field survey, satellite image interpretation, high-resolution DEM and unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) reconnaissance were used to retrieve the values of the assessment factors. Twenty seven World Heritage Sites in the valley strongly influenced by the earthquakeinduced geohazards were evaluated. The impact values of two sites of them(Sparking Lake and Nuorilang Waterfall) are up to 8.24 and 4.65, respectively, and their natural landscapes were greatly damaged. The assessment results show a good agreement with the actual damages of the heritage sites.

Land Surface Displacement Geohazards Monitoring Using Multi-temporal InSAR Techniques

China has been affected by some of the world’s most serious geological disasters and experiences high economic damage every year.Geohazards occur not only in remote areas but also in highly populated cities.In the framework of the Dragon-432365 Project,this paper presents the main results and the major conclusions derived from an extensive exploitation of Sentinel-1,ALOS-2(Advanced Land Observing Satellite 2),GF-3(Gao Fen Satellite 3),and latest launched SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar),together with methods that allow the evaluation of their importance for various geohazards.Therefore,in the scope of this project,the great benefits of recent remote sensing data(wide spatial and temporal coverage)that allow a detailed reconstruction of past displacement events and to monitor currently occurring phenomena are exploited to study different areas and geohazards problems,including:surface deformation of mountain slopes;identification and monitoring of ground movements and subsidence;landslides;ground fissure;and building inclination studies.Suspicious movements detected in the different study areas were cross validated with different SAR sensors and truth data.

Geohazards and Risk in Developing Nations

Geohazards,such as earthquakes,landslides, tsunamis,volcanic eruptions,floods,melting permafrost, and metastable soils impact people’s lives worldwide.Population growth is forcing people to live in areas that have classically supported low population densities including steep slopes,low-lying coasts,and along floodplains and currently climate change is exacerbating risk in these regions.

Geohazards in Pamir Mountains,Tajikistan

We want to talk about the geohazards in Pamir mountains,in Tajikistan,using different materials and researches about it.Also we are trying to look deeply into this problem,and want to research how about

Geohazards Induced by the Lushan Ms7.0 Earthquake in Sichuan Province, Southwest China:Typical Examples, Types and Distributional Characteristics

Geohazards induced by the Lushan Ms 7.0 earthquake on April 20, 2013 mainly have four types： collapse, landslide, slope debris flow, and sand-soil liquefaction. These geohazards mainly occurred near the epicenter, on steep slopes or below cliffs in high mountain and deep valley areas, and at or near fault ends. They have no obvious relationships to active faults, but their relationships to the weathering degree and structures of rock and rock mass are obvious. Compared with the Wenchuan Ms 8.0 earthquake on May 12, 2008, the Lnshan earthquake is relatively little in the impact force and the throwing amount. All of these should be related to the magnitude of this earthquake, not very large but not very little. This character of the Lushan earthquake would make some processes uncompleted so as to bring about some concealed geohazards. Finally, in order to deal with challenges presented by such conceal geohazards, some brief recommendations are put forward.

Rapid Identification and Emergency Investigation of Surface Ruptures and Geohazards Induced by the M_s 7.1 Yushu Earthquake

The rapid identification based on InSAR technology was proved to be effective in our emergency investigation of surface ruptures and geohazards induced by the Yushu earthquake.The earthquake-generating fault of the Yushu earthquake is the Yushu section of the Garze-Yushu faults zone.It strikes NWW-NW,23 km long near the Yushu County seat,dominated by left-lateral strike slip,and appearing as a surface rupture zone.The macroscopic epicenter is positioned at Guo-yang-yan -song-duo of Gyegu Town（33°03＇11＂N,96°51＇26＂E）,where the co-seismic horizontal offset measured is 1.75 m.Geohazards induced by the Yushu earthquake are mainly rockfalls,landslides,debris flows, and unstable slopes.They are controlled by the earthquake-generating fault and are mostly distributed along it.There are several geohazard chains having been established,such as earthquake,canal damage,soil liquefying,landslide-debris flow,earthquake,soil liquefying,roadbed deformation,etc.In order to prevent seismic hazards,generally,where there is a visible surface rupture induced by the Yushu earthquake,reconstruction should be at least beyond 20 m,on each side,from it.Sufficient attention should also be given to potential geohazards or geohazard chains induced by the earthquake.

Rational Exploitation of Resources and Prevention of Geohazards in Karst Regions

This paper discusses the rational exploitation of main resources and prevention of geohazards in karst regions. There exist relationship chains between natural disasters in the earth, which include the chain between geological hazards and climatic hazards, the chain between geological hazards and biogenic hazards as well as the one between geological hazards. Irrational exploitation of all resources will inevitably cause hazards. Therefore it is very important to discuss the problem related to prevention of geohazards by rational exploitation of resources.

Critical environmental factors affecting mountain geohazards in a warming climate in Southwest China

Environmental factors are essential input variables for susceptibility assessment models of mountain geohazards.However,the existing literature provides a limited understanding of the relative contribution of these factors to the occurrence of geohazards with a warming climate,posing tremendous challenges for risk management in mountainous areas.Ya'an city is susceptible to hazards because of its steep terrain,abundant precipitation and active seismic activity.In this regard,we utilise the GeoDetector model to extract critical environmental factors affecting the spatial patterns of mountain geohazards(i.e.,landslide,debris flow and rockfall)in Southwest China.The analysis indicates that the factors with the highest explanatory power for the spatial distribution of landslides,debris flows,and rockfalls are soil property,extreme precipitation and extreme temperature,respectively.Notably,we revealed the synergistic effects among factors given their larger q-value than individual ones.We further explored the responses of mountain geohazards to climate change,including the rising temperature and precipitation,because the frequent occurrence of mountain geohazards is closely related to a warming climate.The variation in snow water equivalent caused by antecedent snowfall and snowdrifts acts as a crucial indicator for geohazards,highlighting the significance of snow and wind observations in meteorological nowcasting and disaster prewarning.We disclose the phenomenon of the geohazard hysteresis to the precipitation peak resulting from the top-down(i.e.,precipitation-runoff and surface-deep soil moisture)peak shifts.Our work is expected to enhance the precision of susceptibility assessment models and the reliability of short-term forecasts for mountain geohazards.

Numerical Simulation of Rainfall-induced Xianchi Reservoir Landslide in Yunyang,Chongqing,China

A calamitous landslide happened at 22:00 on September 1,2014 in the Yunyang area of Chongqing City,southwest China,enforcing the evacuation of 508 people and damaging 23 buildings.The landslide volume comprised 1.44 million m^(3) of material in the source area and 0.4 million m^(3) of shoveled material.The debris flow runout extended 400 m vertically and 1600 m horizontally.The Xianchi reservoir landslide event has been investigated as follows:(1)samples collected from the main body of landslide were carried out using GCTS ring shear apparatus;(2)the parameters of shear and pore water pressure have been measured;and(3)the post-failure characteristics of landslide have been analyzed using the numerical simulation method.The excess pore-water pressure and erosion in the motion path are considered to be the key reasons for the long-runout motion and the scale-up of landslides,such as that at Xianchi,were caused by the heavy rainfall.The aim of this paper is to acquired numerical parameters and the basic resistance model,which is beneficial to improve simulation accuracy for hazard assessment for similar to potentially dangerous hillslopes in China and elsewhere.

Distribution Characteristics of Geohazards Induced by the Lushan Earthquake and Their Comparisons with the Wenchuan Earthquake

The Lushan Earthquake induced a large number of geohazards. They are widely distributed and caused serious damages. The basic characteristics, formation mechanisms and typical cases of geohazards induced by Lushan Earthquake are described, and compares to the relationships of Lushan and Wenchuan earthquakes between geohazards and earthquake magnitude, geomorphology, slope angle, elevation and seismic intensity in the most affected areas in the article.（1） The numbers and volumes of landslides and rockslides differ significantly between the two earthquakes due to their differing magnitudes. The Lushan Earthquake is associated with fewer and smaller-magnitude geohazards, within the immediate area, which mainly consist of small-and medium-sized shallow landslides and rockslides, and occur on steep slopes and mountain valleys. The largest landslide induced by Lushan Earthquake is the Gangoutou Landslide debris flow with a residual volume of about 2.48×106 m3. The most dangerous debris flow is at Lengmugou gulley in Baoxing County, which has similar geomorphological features and disaster modes as a previous disaster in Zhouqu County, Gansu Province.（2） Geohazards induced by the Lushan Earthquake show four mechanisms： cracking-rockslides-collision- scraping and then debris flows, cracking-rockslides, vibration-rainfall-rockslides-landslide and then debris flow, vibration-throwing or scrolling.（3） There are significant similarities and differences between the geohazards induced by these two earthquakes. The types of geohazards are the same but the volume, quantity and other factors differ： geohazards are concentrated on slope angles of 10°-40° in the Lushan Earthquake area, especially within 10°-20°, and at absolute elevation of 500-2000 m above sea level（a.s.l.）. Geohazards within the Wenchuan Earthquake area are concentrated on steeper slope angles of 30°-40° at higher absolute elevations of 1500-2000 m.s.l..

Experimental Study on Consolidation Properties of Hydrate-Bearing Fine-Grained Sediments Collected from the Shenhu Area of the Northern South China Sea

Mechanical properties of hydrate-bearing fine-grained sediments are crucial to effectively mitigate environmental risks caused by artificial and natural decomposition of natural gas hydrates,and the decomposition can induce laterally confined deformation.To explore the effect of natural gas hydrates on laterally confined compression properties,consolidation tests are conducted on remolded hydrate-free and hydrate-bearing samples by using natural fine-grained sediments collected from the northern South China Sea as the host sediments,and empirical equations are developed based on the analyses of consolidation characteristics.The results show that vertical loading induces a reduction in void ratio,and the reduction increases with decreasing hydrate saturation when samples are subjected to the same vertical stress change.The compression index of samples is about 0.53 whether there is hydrate or not,but the yield stress of samples increases sharply with increasing hydrate saturation once beyond the critical value.The coefficient of volume compression and the coefficient of consolidation of hydrate-bearing samples both increase firstly and then decrease to a relative stable level with increasing vertical stress,and the transition occurs at 200 kPa.The average consolidation degree with elapsed time increases rapidly under low vertical stresses,slowly under median vertical stresses,and under high vertical stresses,the consolidation increases a little faster but still slower than those under low vertical stresses.

Extensive identification of landslide boundaries using remote sensing images and deep learning method

The frequent occurrence of extreme weather events has rendered numerous landslides to a global natural disaster issue.It is crucial to rapidly and accurately determine the boundaries of landslides for geohazards evaluation and emergency response.Therefore,the Skip Connection DeepLab neural network(SCDnn),a deep learning model based on 770 optical remote sensing images of landslide,is proposed to improve the accuracy of landslide boundary detection.The SCDnn model is optimized for the over-segmentation issue which occurs in conventional deep learning models when there is a significant degree of similarity between topographical geomorphic features.SCDnn exhibits notable improvements in landslide feature extraction and semantic segmentation by combining an enhanced Atrous Spatial Pyramid Convolutional Block(ASPC)with a coding structure that reduces model complexity.The experimental results demonstrate that SCDnn can identify landslide boundaries in 119 images with MIoU values between 0.8and 0.9;while 52 images with MIoU values exceeding 0.9,which exceeds the identification accuracy of existing techniques.This work can offer a novel technique for the automatic extensive identification of landslide boundaries in remote sensing images in addition to establishing the groundwork for future inve stigations and applications in related domains.

Development and distribution of geohazards triggered by the 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake in China

As the Wenchuan Earthquake was of high magnitude and shallow seismic focus, it caused great dam- age and serious geohazards. By the field investigation and the interpretation of remote-sensing infor- mation after the earthquake and by using means of GIS technology, the distribution of geohazards triggered by the earthquake are analyzed and the conclusions are as follows: (1) The earthquake geo- hazards showed the feature of zonal distribution along the earthquake fault zone and linear distribution along the rivers; (2) the distribution of earthquake geohazards had a marked hanging wall effect, for the development density of geohazards in the hanging wall of earthquake fault zone was obviously higher than that in the foot wall and the width of strong development zone in the hanging wall was about 10 km; (3) the topographical slope was a main factor which controlled the development of earthquake geo- hazards and a vast majority of hazards were distributed on the slopes of 20° to 50°; (4) the earthquake geohazards had a corresponding relationship with the elevation and micro-landform, for most hazards happened in the river valleys and canyon sections below the elevation of 1500 to 2000 m, particularly in the upper segment of canyon sections (namely, the turning point from the dale to the canyon). Thin ridge, isolated or full-face space mountains were most sensitive to the seismic wave, and had a striking amplifying effect. In these areas, collapses and landslides were most likely to develop; (5) the study also showed that different lithologies determined the types of geohazards, and usually, landslides oc- curred in soft rocks, while collapses occurred in hard rocks.

Recent Advances of Deep Learning in Geological Hazard Forecasting

Geological hazard is an adverse geological condition that can cause loss of life and property.Accurate prediction and analysis of geological hazards is an important and challenging task.In the past decade,there has been a great expansion of geohazard detection data and advancement in data-driven simulation techniques.In particular,great efforts have been made in applying deep learning to predict geohazards.To understand the recent progress in this field,this paper provides an overview of the commonly used data sources and deep neural networks in the prediction of a variety of geological hazards.

An Assessment Capability for LNG Leaks in Complex Environments

Pollutants may be introduced into urban or marine settings by various means and could result in an adverse impact to public safety and the environment. Therefore, it is important for emergency management personnel to understand the potential risks and physical extents of a leaked substance, whether it is toxic, flammable or explosive. Traditional tools for predicting the atmospheric dispersion of leaked substances are quick and simple to use, but may not adequately consider the effects of the built environment that includes complex urban and terrain geometries. Alternatively, CFD methods have been increasing in application;although, their superior accuracy is met with commensurate manual effort. The All Hazards Planner is a fast, accurate gas dispersion modelling tool for city and port environments, which employs a full-physics CFD approach but automates the intensive manual effort. In this work, a credible LNG leak from a 12-mm-diameter hole is modelled for two hypothetical case studies: adjacent to an LNG tanker and between a cruise ship and pier during bunkering. The LNG vapour flammability extents are compared to an empirical model in the absence of geometry effects and are contrasted with geometry effects to highlight the importance of the real environment. The free-field extents are invariant, whereas the inclusion of geometry is shown to reduce the flammability extents by spreading at the ground-level and forcing the plume upwards.