Multi-temporal Landslide Evaluation by Using UAV: Some Insights on Disaster Risk in Teziutlán, Puebla México

Abstract

This paper aimed at analyzing some insights related to landslide disaster risk at local scale in a mountain region of Mexico by using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The developed methodology to produce UAV derived imagery is presented. Point cloud LiDAR, the Digital Surface Model (DSM) derivative, and the orthophoto generated have a resolution of 0.05 m. Moreover, an analysis of the growth of human settlements at local scale was carried out from 1942 to 2016, and related to landslide exposure. The latter resulted from a landslide susceptibility map produced with the DSM using the weight of evidence method. According to the results, at the present time the France vicinity (Teziutlán, Puebla) covers an area of 67.85 ha, although the inhabited surface is of 35.46 ha. In seven and a half decades, the size of the expansion of the dwellings was increased seven-fold. The 54% of total surface can be characterized as moderately or highly susceptible to landslides. Likewise, estimations suggested that 52.27% (35.46 ha) of the total surface of the neighborhood is occupied by households; out of which, 18.74 ha, the equivalent of 50.81% of the total inhabited area is situated in the high and moderate landslide susceptibility zones.