Space-time data-driven modeling of precipitation-induced shallow landslides in South Tyrol, Italy

Mateo Moreno*, Luigi Lombardo, Alice Crespi, Peter James Zellner, Volkmar Mair, Massimiliano Pittore, C.J. van Westen, Stefan Steger

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
148 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Shallow landslides represent potentially damaging processes in mountain areas worldwide. These geomorphic processes are usually caused by an interplay of predisposing, preparatory, and triggering environmental factors. At regional scales, data-driven methods have been used to model shallow landslides by addressing the spatial and temporal components separately. So far, few studies have explored the integration of space and time for landslide prediction. This research leverages generalized additive mixed models to develop an integrated approach to model shallow landslides in space and time. We built upon data on precipitation-induced landslide records from 2000 to 2020 in South Tyrol, Italy (7400 km2). The slope unit-based model predicts landslide occurrence as a function of static and dynamic factors while seasonal effects are incorporated. The model also accounts for spatial and temporal biases inherent in the underlying landslide data. We validated the resulting predictions through a suite of cross-validation techniques, obtaining consistent performance scores above 0.85. The analyses revealed that the best-performing model combines static ground conditions and two precipitation time windows: a short-term cumulative precipitation of 2 days before the landslide event and a medium-term cumulative precipitation of 14 days. We demonstrated the model's predictive capabilities by predicting the dynamic landslide probabilities over historical data associated with a heavy precipitation event on August 4th and August 5th, 2016, and hypothetical non-spatially explicit precipitation (what-if) scenarios. The novel approach shows the potential to integrate static and dynamic landslide factors for large areas, accounting for the underlying data structure and data limitations.
Original languageEnglish
Article number169166
Pages (from-to)1-17
Number of pages17
JournalScience of the total environment
Volume912
Issue number169166
Early online date10 Dec 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Feb 2024

Keywords

  • Sapce-time modeling
  • GAMMs
  • Dynamic hazard modeling
  • Rainfall-induced landslides
  • ITC-HYBRID
  • ITC-ISI-JOURNAL-ARTICLE
  • UT-Hybrid-D

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