Scoring system to predict landslide runout in the Pacific Northwest, USA

摘要

Long-runout landslides can be extremely hazardous and unpredictable. The prediction of long-runout landslides is challenging because it is unclear what factors control their mobility, and it is unclear how to best measure their runout given that they traverse changing topography. In this paper, we document the development and statistical evaluation of a Landslide Runout Score (LRS) system to predict short, medium, and long runout using a new mobility measure, the unitless Runout Number L/A(1/2) (where L is landslide length and A is landslide area). The Runout Number has previously been correlated to three geomorphological factors (planimetric curvature, sand content, and upslope contributing area normalized to landslide area), so the LRS uses these factors as inputs. These factors are readily calculated using geographic information systems (GIS) and publicly available data sources. The LRS system predicts runout categories (short, medium, and long) with one-vs.-all accuracies (i.e., percentage of correct predictions within a given class) of 75, 58, and 72, respectively, for a total weighted accuracy of approximately 65. The results of this work are summarized in a worksheet that can be used by geologists and engineers to develop preliminary predictions of landslide runout behavior, which can be incorporated into or used alongside regional-scale landslide hazard assessments.