Recent advancements of landslide hydrology

Occurrence of rainfall-induced landslides is increasing worldwide, owing to land use and climate changes. Although the connection between hydrology and rainfall-induced landslides might seem obvious, hydrological processes have been only marginally considered in landslide research for decades. In 2016, an advanced review paper published in...

Effects of dynamic changes of desiccation cracks on preferential flow: experimental investigation and numerical modeling

Preferential flow induced by desiccation cracks (PF-DC) has been proven to be an important hydrological effect that could cause various geotechnical engineering and ecological environment problems. Investigation on the PF-DC remains a great challenge due to the soil shrinking–swelling behavior. This work presents an experimental and numerical...

Soil moisture information can improve shallow landslide forecasting using the hydrometeorological threshold approach

Empirical thresholds indicating the meteorological conditions leading to shallow landslide triggering are one of the most important components of landslide early warning systems (LEWS). Thresholds have been determined for many parts of the globe and present significant margins of improvement, especially for the high number of false alarms...

Non-invasive water content estimation in a tuff wall by DTS

Undesired presence of water in historical masonries has a negative effect on the walls and causes deterioration of decorative works covering the walls, such as frescoes and valuable plasters. To prevent this, non-invasive moisture measurements are needed that avoid damage during masonry inspection caused by sample taking or probe insertion....

Potential use of satellite information on soil moisture to improve landslide forecasting: a numerical investigation

Overview of landslide hydrology

Most landslides and debris flows worldwide occur during or following periods of rainfall, and many of these have been associated with major disasters causing extensive property damage and loss of life [...]

Non-invasive estimation of moisture content in tuff bricks by GPR

Measuring water content in buildings of historical value requires non-invasive techniques to avoid the damage that sample taking or probe insertion may cause to the investigated walls. With this aim, a stepped frequency ground penetrating radar (GPR) system was tested to assess its applicability in moisture measurements of porous masonry...

Measuring changes in forest floor evaporation after prescribed burning in Southern Italy pine plantations

Wildfires are a growing concern in the Mediterranean area. Prescribed burning (PB) is often used to reduce fire risk, through fine fuel reduction. However, the monitoring of PB effects on ecosystem processes is mandatory before its spread. This study aims to assess hydrological effects of PB on the topsoil by controlled laboratory experiments...

Invited perspectives: Hydrological perspectives on precipitation intensity-duration thresholds for landslide initiation: Proposing hydro-meteorological thresholds

Many shallow landslides and debris flows are precipitation initiated. Therefore, regional landslide hazard assessment is often based on empirically derived precipitation intensity-duration (ID) thresholds and landslide inventories. Generally, two features of precipitation events are plotted and labeled with (shallow) landslide occurrence or...

The impacts of heating strategy on soil moisture estimation using actively heated fiber optics

Several recent studies have highlighted the potential of Actively Heated Fiber Optics (AHFO) for high resolution soil moisture mapping. In AHFO, the soil moisture can be calculated from the cumulative temperature (T_cum), the maximum temperature (T_max), or the soil thermal conductivity determined from the cooling phase...

Quantification of the influence of preferential flow on slope stability using a numerical modelling approach

The effect of preferential flow on the stability of landslides is studied through numerical simulation of two types of rainfall events on a hypothetical hillslope. A model is developed that consists of two parts. The first part is a model for combined saturated/unsaturated subsurface flow and is used to compute the spatial and temporal water...

Preface: "Hillslope hydrological modelling for landslides prediction"

Quantification of the influence of preferential flow on slope stability using a numerical modeling approach (discussions)

The effect of preferential flow on the stability of landslides is studied through numerical simulation of two types of rainfall events on a hypothetical hillslope. A model is developed that consists of two parts. The first part is a model for combined saturated/unsaturated subsurface flow and is used to compute the spatial and temporal water...

The Round Robin Test on Landslide Hydrological Modeling at IWL2013

During the Third Italian Workshop on Landslide, a special session was dedicated to a landslide hydrological modeling competition. The modeling exercise dealt with slopes covered with loose granular pyroclastic deposits typical of Campania (southern Italy). The data provided to the participants for the calibration of their models are described,...