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Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion
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Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Hazards and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 7930

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Clemente Irigaray

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: hazards and sustainability; landslide dynamics, mechanisms, and processes; remote sensing and GIS techniques; landslide and erosion hazard assessment and mapping; numerical and empirical methods; early warning; remedial and preventive measures
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Tomás Manuel Fernández

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Interests: hazards, sustainability and resilience; geomatics, remote sensing and GIS techniques; landslide and erosion monitoring; landslide and erosion hazards’ assessment and mapping; early warning systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues:

Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion are important geological processes that can have significant impacts on the environment and human societies. From a scientific perspective, understanding the mechanisms that control these processes is essential for the prediction and mitigation of the associated risks. Scientists study factors such as geology, topography, climate, vegetation, and human activities to assess the susceptibility of a terrain to landslides or erosion. They use field observations, laboratory experiments, and mathematical models to identify the causes of these processes and quantify their effects. From a sustainability perspective, the management of Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion is critical for the maintenance of the health of ecosystems and to ensure the safety and well-being of human communities. The prevention of soil erosion can help protect water quality and reduce sedimentation in rivers and reservoirs, which in turn can preserve aquatic habitats and biodiversity. In addition, soil stability is essential for agriculture, food production, and food security. Understanding landslide processes is also important for urban planning and infrastructure design. The evaluation of terrain stability is necessary to identify areas that may be prone to landslides and take appropriate prevention measures, such as building retaining walls or relocating buildings. Overall, the importance of Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion from a scientific and sustainability perspective lies in their potential to significantly impact the environment and human societies. The proper understanding and management of these processes are essential to ensure the sustainability and resilience of ecosystems and human communities.

In recent decades, there has been significant improvement in observation and risk assessment using numerical and analytical methods. These developments offer new displays for landslide hazard and soil erosion, leading to new insights into their functioning and new approaches to obtain better prediction. This Special Issue is devoted to the collection of the latest developments and applications in these topics.

We invite scholars working in this field to consider submitting their latest results. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Hazards and sustainability;
  • Interdisciplinary approaches;
  • Landslide dynamics, mechanisms, and processes;
  • Landslide activity;
  • Soil erosion;
  • Sedimentation;
  • Remote sensing and GIS techniques;
  • Rainfall-triggered landslides and soil erosion;
  • Landslide hazard and soil erosion mapping;
  • Empirical methods;
  • Numerical models;
  • Risk assessment;
  • Model validation;
  • Early warning;
  • Remedial and preventive measures;
  • Engineering design.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Clemente Irigaray
Prof. Dr. Tomás Fernández
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • landslide hazard
  • soil erosion
  • sustainability
  • risk assessment
  • remote sensing
  • GIS

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 12276 KiB  
Article
Landslide Deformation Study in the Three Gorges Reservoir, China, Using DInSAR Technique and Overlapping Sentinel-1 SAR Data
by Kuan Tu, Jingui Zou, Shirong Ye, Jiming Guo and Hua Chen
Sustainability 2025, 17(4), 1629; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17041629 - 15 Feb 2025
Viewed by 1043
Abstract
Monitoring and analyzing reservoir landslides are essential for predicting and mitigating geohazards, which are crucial for maintaining sustainability and supporting socio-economic development in reservoir areas. High spatiotemporal resolution is vital for effective reservoir landslide monitoring and analysis. For this purpose, we improved the [...] Read more.
Monitoring and analyzing reservoir landslides are essential for predicting and mitigating geohazards, which are crucial for maintaining sustainability and supporting socio-economic development in reservoir areas. High spatiotemporal resolution is vital for effective reservoir landslide monitoring and analysis. For this purpose, we improved the resolution of the differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) technique by fusing two-path deformation results from an overlapping Sentinel-1 area. First, we summarized the mathematical ratio relationship between deformation from the two paths. Second, time-series linear interpolation and time-reference difference removal were applied to the two separate deformation results of time-series DInSAR. Third, a ratio algorithm was adopted to fuse the deformation of the two paths into one integrated time-series result. The standard deviations of the deformation before and after fusion were similar, confirming the accuracy of the fusion results and feasibility of the method. From the integrated deformation, we analyzed the hydraulic impact, mechanisms, and physical processes associated with four reservoir landslides in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of China, accounting for rainfall and water-level data. The comprehensive analysis presented herein provides new insights on the hydraulic mechanisms of reservoir landslides and verifies the efficacy of this new integrated method for landslide investigation and monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion)
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23 pages, 6109 KiB  
Article
Mapping Benggang Erosion Susceptibility: An Analysis of Environmental Influencing Factors Based on the Maxent Model
by Haidong Ou, Xiaolin Mu, Zaijian Yuan, Xiankun Yang, Yishan Liao, Kim Loi Nguyen and Samran Sombatpanit
Sustainability 2024, 16(17), 7328; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177328 - 26 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1404
Abstract
Benggang erosion is one of the most severe geomorphological hazards occurring on deeply weathered crusts in the hilly regions of southern China. Unraveling the susceptibility and pinpointing the risk areas of Benggang erosion are essential for developing effective prevention and management strategies. This [...] Read more.
Benggang erosion is one of the most severe geomorphological hazards occurring on deeply weathered crusts in the hilly regions of southern China. Unraveling the susceptibility and pinpointing the risk areas of Benggang erosion are essential for developing effective prevention and management strategies. This study introduced the Maxent model to investigate Benggang erosion susceptibility (BES) and compared the evaluation results with the widely used Random Forest (RF) model. The findings are as follows: (1) the incidence of Benggang erosion is rising initially with an increase in elevation, slope, topographic wetness index, rainfall erosivity, and fractional vegetation cover, followed by a subsequent decline, highlighting its distinct characteristics compared to typical types of gully erosion; (2) the AUC values from the ROC curves for the Maxent and RF models are 0.885 and 0.927, respectively. Both models converge on elevation, fractional vegetation cover, rainfall erosivity, Lithology, and topographic wetness index as the most impactful variables; (3) both models adeptly identified regions prone to potential Benggang erosion. However, the Maxent model demonstrated superior spatial correlation in its susceptibility assessment, contrasting with the RF model, which tended to overestimate the BES in certain regions; (4) the Maxent model’s advantages include no need for absence samples, direct handling of categorical data, and more convincing results, suggesting its potential for widespread application in the BES assessment. This research contributes empirical evidence to study the Benggang erosion developing conditions in the hilly regions of southern China and provides an important consideration for the sustainability of the regional ecological environment and human society. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion)
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31 pages, 37848 KiB  
Article
Pixel-Based Spatio-Statistical Analysis of Landslide Probability in Humid and Seismically Active Areas of Himalaya and Hindukush
by Sajjad Muhammad Khan, Atta-Ur Rahman, Muhammad Ali, Fahad Alshehri, Muhammad Shahab and Sajid Ullah
Sustainability 2024, 16(9), 3556; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16093556 - 24 Apr 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2781
Abstract
The Hindukush and Himalaya regions of Pakistan are chronically prone to several geological hazards such as landslides. Studying landslides in these regions is crucial for risk assessment and disaster management, as well as for determining the effects of adverse climatic conditions, infrastructure management, [...] Read more.
The Hindukush and Himalaya regions of Pakistan are chronically prone to several geological hazards such as landslides. Studying landslides in these regions is crucial for risk assessment and disaster management, as well as for determining the effects of adverse climatic conditions, infrastructure management, and increasing anthropogenic activities. High-relief mountains in these regions face severe challenges because of frequently occurring landslides and other natural hazards, especially during intensive rainfall seasons and seismic activity, which destroy infrastructure and cause injuries and deaths. Landslides in the Alpuri Valley (Hindukush) and the Neelum Valley (Himalaya) have been activated through high magnitude earthquakes, intensive rainfalls, snowfall, floods, and man-made activities. Landslide susceptibility mapping in these areas is essential for sustainable development as it enables proactive risk management, up-to-date decision-making, and effective responses to landslide hazards, ultimately safeguarding human lives, property, and the environment. In this study, the relative effect method was applied for landslide susceptibility modeling in both study areas to determine the capability to reduce the effects of landslides, and to improve the prediction accuracy of the method. The relative effect is a statistical model that has only been used for very limited time for landslide susceptibility with effective results. A total of 368 (Neelum Valley) and 89 (Alpuri Valley) landslide locations were identified, which were utilized to prepare the reliable landslide inventory using GIS. In order to evaluate the areas at risk for future landslides activities and determine their spatial relationship with landslide occurrences, the landslide inventory was developed with 17 landslide causative factors. These factors include slope gradient, slope aspect, geology, plan curvature, general curvature, profile curvature, elevation, stream power index, drainage density, terrain roughness index, distance from the roads, distance from the streams, distance from fault lines, normalized difference wetness index, land-use/land-cover, rainfall, and normalized difference vegetation index. Finally, the performance of the relative effect method was validated using the success and prediction curve rate. The AUC-validated result of the success rate curve in the Alpuri Valley is 74.75%, and 82.15% in the Neelum Valley, whereas, the AUC-validated result of the prediction rate curve of the model is 87.87% in the Alpuri Valley and 82.73% in the Neelum Valley. These results indicate the reliability of the model to produce a landslide susceptibility map, and apply it to other landslide areas. The model demonstrated a more effective result in the Alpuri Valley, having a smaller area. However, the results are also desirable and favorable in Neelum Valley, with it being a large area. It will assist in general landslide hazard management and mitigation, and further research studies related to future landslide susceptibility assessments in other parts of the region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion)
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22 pages, 4474 KiB  
Article
The Spatiotemporal Variations in Soil Erosion and Its Dominant Influencing Factors in the Wenchuan Earthquake-Stricken Area
by Jialin Li, Bing Guo, Guang Yang and Kun Yu
Sustainability 2023, 15(17), 12701; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151712701 - 22 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1539
Abstract
Earthquakes have obvious influences on the spatiotemporal changes in soil erosion intensity in earthquake-stricken areas. However, fewer studies have been conducted to evaluate the spatiotemporal changes in soil erosion before and after the Wenchuan earthquake and its dominant factors in different periods. In [...] Read more.
Earthquakes have obvious influences on the spatiotemporal changes in soil erosion intensity in earthquake-stricken areas. However, fewer studies have been conducted to evaluate the spatiotemporal changes in soil erosion before and after the Wenchuan earthquake and its dominant factors in different periods. In order to explore the above issue, this study quantitatively analyzed the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of soil erosion in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area from 2000 to 2019 based on the RUSLE model, gravity center model, and its dominant factors in different periods were determined using Geodetector. The research results indicated that: (1) The amount of mean total erosion in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area during 2000–2019 was 10.05 × 108 t, with an average soil erosion modulus of 2038.2 t/(km2·a), indicating mild erosion. (2) The spatiotemporal patterns of soil erosion changed greatly in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken areas during 2000–2019. Areas with intensified soil erosion were mainly distributed in Lixian, Wenchuan, Xiaojin, and other areas near the Longmenshan fault zones. (3) Landslides, debris flows, and floods caused by the Wenchuan earthquake contributed to aggravating the soil erosion intensity in the stricken area. (4) During 2000–2019, the soil erosion intensity showed an overall decreasing trend, while the soil erosion intensity showed an increasing trend around 2008 due to the Wenchuan earthquake. (5) During 2000–2019, soil erosion in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area has been greatly affected by vegetation, terrain, and land use types. The research results could provide important decision-making support for soil erosion prevention and ecosystem restoration in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area. In addition, these results would be conducive to revealing and understanding the interactive process of “Water–Soil–Vegetation” in mountainous regions all over the world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landslide Hazards and Soil Erosion)
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