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Assessment of some spatial and temporal issues in landslide initiation within the Río Aguas Catchment, South–East Spain

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Abstract

A research programme underway in south–east Spain has the overall aim of developing a long-term landscape evolution model for the Tertiary depositional basins that lie within the eastern part of the Betic cordillera. As part of the work it has become apparent that there are multiple natural hazards to development in the region, and the nature and distribution of these is presently under investigation. For one hazard, namely landsliding, a database of over 300 cases has been compiled within one defined 425 km2 river catchment, namely the Río Aguas. Evaluation of the database has demonstrated that the contemporary distribution of landslides correlates with areas of steepest slopes across a range of the different lithologies. However, the “slope” component of the landscape is controlled by a wave of incision associated with a river capture event c. 100000 years ago which locally increased erosion by between 5 and 10 times. This event was a function of differential uplift between the depositional basins and resulted in over-steepened slopes within parts of the catchment which have yet to reach equilibrium in this evolving landscape.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the following individuals and organizations: the University of Plymouth Higher Education Funding Council (England) research funds administered by the School of Geography for supporting fieldwork; Lindy Walsh at Cortijo Urra Field Study Center, Sorbas for supplying accommodation and climate data; the Natural Environment Research Council Airborne Remote Sensing Facility for carrying out projects ASRF 95/10 (Sorbas Basin) and ASRF 01/13 (Rambla Costanos) that supplied airborne remote sensing imagery and photographs to support the field mapping; the Geological Society of London and the British Geomorphological Research Group for helping to fund Dr Hart's fieldwork. The authors would also like to thank two unknown referees for their extremely helpful suggestions on ways to improve the paper

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth, Ocean & Environmental Science, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    J. S. Griffiths

  2. Scott, Wilson, Kirkpatrick & Co Ltd, Basingstoke, UK

    A. B. Hart

  3. School of Geography, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    A. E. Mather

  4. School of Earth, Ocean & Environmental Science, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    M. Stokes

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  1. J. S. Griffiths
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Correspondence to J. S. Griffiths.

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Griffiths, J.S., Hart, A.B., Mather, A.E. et al. Assessment of some spatial and temporal issues in landslide initiation within the Río Aguas Catchment, South–East Spain. Landslides 2, 183–192 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-005-0004-1

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