Dendrogeomorphology of landslides: principles, results and perspectives
- PDF / 1,038,849 Bytes
- 21 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 53 Downloads / 181 Views
Karel Šilhán
Dendrogeomorphology of landslides: principles, results and perspectives
Abstract Landslides are dangerous and destructive geomorphic processes that cause annual damage to human infrastructure or even loss of life. As recovery is very costly, knowledge of past landslide activities, a detailed analysis of triggers and prediction of future landslide development are important. Dendrogeomorphic (treering-based) dating is the best solution of chronological data obtaining in forested areas, where trees annually produce increment rings. A moving landslide mass affects trees that grow on its surface. Trees respond to this influence in different ways that are recordable and subsequently visible in tree ring series. Thus, tree rings represent an ideal natural archive of past landslide behaviour. Depending on the tree species, the length of a landslide chronology can be several centuries with sub-annual resolution. Although dendrogeomorphic approaches have some limitations, provided data are unique because they represent insight into the past without the need for long-term monitoring. Nevertheless, trees as landslide archives are suitable for medium-magnitude events because excessively small movements can be disregarded and catastrophic movements destroy trees. This review introduces details regarding tree-landslide interactions, provides a historical overview of applied methods, presents and assesses methodical approaches and summarises basic advantages and contributions to the knowledge of landslide chronology, spatial behaviour and triggers. Finally, limitations, the potential for subsequent research directions and calls for future fundamental studies in new world regions are presented. Keywords Dendrogeomorphology . Landslide . Spatio-temporal reconstruction . Limitations . Outlook Introduction Landslides belong to the most dangerous geomorphic processes (Huabin et al. 2005) and are one of the most active and significant agents forming relief of many regions throughout the world (Van Westen et al. 2006; Shroder et al. 2011). Their danger is characterised by abrupt formation, large spatial extent and difficult predictability. The landslide risk is particularly high in densely populated areas where buildings and even villages can be substantially damaged by landslides (Ngadisih et al. 2017; Paliaga et al. 2019). Landslide dams are often unstable, and subsequent landslide lake outburst floods (LLOF) are an extremely dangerous phenomenon connected with landslide activity (Gupta and Sah 2008). Forested areas express damage to trees and loss of forestry. Last but not least, landslides are responsible for thousands of fatalities every year (Guzzetti 2000; Grahne and Jaldell 2017). Remediation and protection projects cost billions of Euros (Sassa and Canuti 2009). Due to abovementioned danger, broadly extended occurrence (Aleotti and Chowdhury 1999), and the rich spectre of predisposition and triggering factors that are difficult to predict, landslides are one of the most frequently studied natural hazards. Morpholog
Data Loading...
