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Ten years of landslide development after the Wenchuan earthquake: a case study from Miansi town, China

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Abstract

The earthquake outbreak on 12 May 2008, in Wenchuan County caused long-term instability and frequent geological hazards on the mountain slopes in the earthquake area. Considering Miansi town in the strong earthquake area as an example, this paper analyses the development and characteristics of landslides in the 10 years after the earthquake. We collected five periods of remote sensing images in the 10 years after the earthquake, obtained the corresponding landslide distribution and activity characteristics, and then analysed the development of landslide activity over the 10 years. The total area of the landslides grew intensively from 2008 to 2014, and then the growth rate slowed down significantly after the heavy rainfall event on 10 July 2013. At the same time, the influence of slope, slope aspect, distance to a river channel, elevation, and other factors on the probability of landslides is analysed by using the distribution of the landslides. The areas that are prone to landslides, which mainly include the areas with elevations of 1700–3200 m, the areas with slopes of 30–60°, the areas with aspects of 90°–225° (with north having an aspect of 0°), and the area that are less than 200 m from a river channel, are divided according to the distribution density.

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Acknowledgements

This research is financially supported by The National Key Research and Development Program of China (Project No. 2017YFC1501004), and and the Scientific Research Foundation of Xihua University (Grant No. Z201133). The authors would like to thank the State Key Laboratory for Geohazard Prevention and Environmental Protection (SKLGP), Chengdu, China, for providing data and support with the fieldwork. Prof. Chuan Tang helped to improve the language and structure of the paper. We thank MSC student Tao Yang (SKLGP) for helping us prepare the landslide inventories.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Emergency Science, Xihua University, Chengdu, 610039, China

    Ning Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 61005, China

    Chuan Tang

  3. Sichuan Chuanjian Geotechnical Survey and Design Institute, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Tao Yang

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  1. Ning Li
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  2. Chuan Tang
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  3. Tao Yang
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Correspondence to Ning Li.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Li, N., Tang, C. & Yang, T. Ten years of landslide development after the Wenchuan earthquake: a case study from Miansi town, China. Nat Hazards 111, 2787–2808 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-05157-y

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