Extreme rainfall-related accelerations in landslides in Danba County, Sichuan Province, as detected by InSAR
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Landslides are frequent mountainous geohazards induced by multiple factors, such as extreme rainfall, river erosion, and intense anthropogenic activities. On 17 June 2020, a rainstorm hit Danba County, Sichuan Province, and triggered the catastrophic Aniangzhai landslide. The impact of this rainstorm on landslide kinematics in this region has seldom been investigated. We used a time-series interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) analysis to map the active slopes in Danba County using one ascending (2015–2021) and one descending (2018–2021) Sentinel-1 dataset. A total of 36 landslides (63.1 km2) were detected along riverbanks. The time series of eastward and vertical displacements during 2018–2021 were retrieved by integrating the ascending and descending Sentinel-1 datasets. The maximum eastward and vertical displacement rates obtained are 229 and −75 mm/yr, respectively. Seasonal accelerations are correlated with concentrated rainfall. We suggest that the 2020 rainstorm and the abundant precipitation during the water year 2020 altered the long-term displacement trends of active landslides. We further constrained the volumes of the Niela and Gaoding landslides in the order 3.6–6.9 × 107 m3 and 5.4–6.0 × 108 m3, respectively, using 2D displacement rates and mass conservation equations. Our results demonstrate that multi-temporal and multi-orbit InSAR measurements can provide insights into the evolution and mechanism of landslides.
Institutions: China University of Geosciences, Sun Yat-sen University
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,250
OpenAlex ID: W4309719695