10. Review on Landslide Early Warning System: A Brief History, Evolution, and Controlling Parameters

A landslide is a life-threatening event causing large infrastructural damages. The major causes for landslides are rainfall, earthquakes, blasting, and other man-made activities. The landslides can happen even without human interference, and hence, it can be classified as a natural process. The population expansion in landslide-prone areas demands a better sustainable method for slope protection and landslide prediction. The main objective of this chapter is to review the previous research studies conducted in the soil slopes using manual instrumentations and the improved data acquisition systems (DAQ) that are used recently. A landslide early warning system (LEWS) is only as strong as the understanding of the phenomenon. The first objective of the development of an early warning system is to find the triggering mechanism of the impending disaster. The three landslide triggering mechanisms are excess rain, seismic activities, and man-made activities. For rainfall-induced landslides, finding the rainfall threshold parameter is one of the difficult tasks. The methods involved in finding this threshold and using it for the development of the LEWS will be discussed in this chapter.