The relevance of geotechnical-unit characterization for landslide-susceptibility mapping with SHALSTAB

Given the increasing occurrence of landslides worldwide, the improvement of predictive models for landslide mapping is needed. Despite the influence of geotechnical parameters on SHALSTAB model outputs, there is a lack of research on models’ performance when considering different variables. In parti...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Melo, Carla Moreira, Kobiyama, Masato, Michel, Gean Paulo, Brito, Mariana Madruga de
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:www.lume.ufrgs.br:10183/233834
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10183/233834
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Geotecnia
Escorregamentos translacionais
Modelos matemáticos
Mapeamento geotécnico
Geotechnical unit
Detective performance index of unstable areas
Model performance
SHALSTAB
Landslide hazard
Descripción
Sumario:Given the increasing occurrence of landslides worldwide, the improvement of predictive models for landslide mapping is needed. Despite the influence of geotechnical parameters on SHALSTAB model outputs, there is a lack of research on models’ performance when considering different variables. In particular, the role of geotechnical units (i.e., areas with common soil and lithology) is understudied. Indeed, the original SHALSTAB model considers that the whole basin has homogeneous soil. This can lead to the under-or-overestimation of landslide hazards. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the advantages of incorporating geotechnical units as a variable in contrast to the original model. By using locally sampled geotechnical data, 13 slope-instability scenarios were simulated for the Jaguar creek basin, Brazil. This allowed us to verify the sensitivity of the model to different input variables and assumptions. To evaluate the model performance, we used the Success Index, Error Index, ROC curve, and a new performance index: the Detective Performance Index of Unstable Areas. The best model performance was obtained in the scenario with discretized geotechnical units’ values and the largest sample size. Results indicate the importance of properly characterizing the geotechnical units when using SHALSTAB. Hence, future applications should consider this to improve models’ predictivity.