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The influence of rainstorm pattern on shallow landslide

  • Original Article
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Environmental Geology

Abstract

In this study, the influence of the rainstorm pattern on shallow landslide is examined. The physically-based shallow landslide model is used to conduct this examination with considering four representative rainstorm patterns including uniform, advanced, central, and delayed rainstorms. The results show that in spite of the rainfall duration and the rainfall pattern, the rainstorm with less than the minimum landslide-triggering rainfall amount will not trigger landslide. However, for the rainstorm with greater than the minimum landslide-triggering rainfall amount, the occurrence of landslide significantly depends not only on the rainfall duration but also on the rainfall pattern. Among the four representative rainstorm patterns, the delayed rainstorm has the greatest rainfall duration threshold for landslide occurrence, followed by the central rainstorm, and then the uniform rainstorm. In addition, for each rainstorm pattern, the corresponding rainfall duration threshold for landslide occurrence decreases with the increase of rainfall amount, and seems to be constant for large rainfall amount.

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Abbreviations

C :

the change in volumetric water content per unit change in pressure head

C 0 :

the minimum value of C

c :

soil cohesion

D 0 :

\({K_{{\rm sat}} } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{K_{{\rm sat}} } {C_{0} }}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {C_{0} }\)

d Z :

water depth

d LZ :

slope depth

FS:

factor of safety

I Z :

rainfall intensity

K sat :

saturated hydraulic conductivity

T :

rainfall duration

Z :

the coordinates

ψ :

groundwater pressure head

θ :

soil volumetric water content

α :

slope angle

φ :

soil friction angle

γsat and γw:

the unit weights of saturated soil and water

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Water Resources Engineering, National Chiayi University, 300 Sefu Road, Chiayi City, 60004, Taiwan

    Tung-Lin Tsai

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  1. Tung-Lin Tsai
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Tsai, TL. The influence of rainstorm pattern on shallow landslide. Environ Geol 53, 1563–1569 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0767-x

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