Landslides. Types, mechanisms and modeling / Оползни. Типы, механизм и моделирование

A series of well-publicized disasters and catastrophes during recent years, including a cyclone in Myanmar, earthquakes in China, Haiti, Chile, and New Zealand, and an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, underscore the importance of efforts to reduce risk from natural hazards around the world. Landslides, floods, drought, wildfire, storms, tsunamis, and earthquakes continue to take a heavy toll in lives and infrastructure. In the past decade, disasters have killed over 750,000 people and caused damage costing hundreds of billions of dollars (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, 2011). Most of the loss of life was the result of earthquakes, tsunamis, and tropical storms; loss of life from landslides was only a small percentage of the total. Nevertheless, landslides are responsible for much primary and secondary economic damage – in the USA alone, landslides cause damage costing $1–2 billion and more than 25 fatalities each year (US Geological Survey, 2011).

As the global population continues to increase, more people will be at risk from landslides. Even small slope failures are a threat to transportation infrastructure, as they disrupt the movement of goods and are costly to clear (Fig. 1). However, the economic costs of landslides are not limited to roads and railways. Underwater landslides have destroyed coastal infrastructure; catastrophic landslides may enter the sea and lakes, triggering destructive tsunamis (Fig. 2); landslides have blocked rivers, producing upstream flooding and reservoirs (Fig. 3), which are subject to sudden emptying and resulting downstream floods; and landslides may enter settled areas, causing death and injury.
Because of the threat that landslides pose to public safety and infrastructure, research aimed at better understanding slope stability and failure has accelerated in recent years. This acceleration is reflected in more basic field research, numerical modeling of slope failure processes, and improvements in understanding the mechanisms of debris movement, and landslide causes and triggers. This book summarizes recent advances in the study of landslides, written by 78 leading specialists from around the world. <...>