The Effect of Precipitation Characteristics on Spatial and Temporal Variations of Tavan Landslide Movement

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Jamshid Joybari ¹
• Ataollah Kavian ²
• Jamal Mosaffaei ³

¹ Natural Resources Administration of Tehran Province

² Sari University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources

³ University of Yazd

10.22067/geo.v4i4.43884

Abstract

1. Introduction
Rainfall intensity and duration are one of the most important factors in the occurrence of landslides; therefore, nowadays rainfall is recognized as the most common and triggering factor in the occurrence of landslides. Since raw data of landslide displacement is very important to researchers in order to study the deformation process and laws of landslide displacement, the Global Positioning System (GPS) and computer sciences can be used as a tool to measure the landslide displacement. So monitoring and determining the relations between the amount of landslide movement and characteristics of precipitation (such as type, intensity, duration) and the direction of the sliding mass using GPS can be a turning point in the sustainable management of this natural disaster.

2. Study Area
The study area refers to the Tavan landslide which occurred in 2010 covering an area of 40 ha in Qazvin Province in Iran.

3. Material and Methods
After identifying the sliding mass, a network of fixed points on the inside (17 points) and outside of it (3 points) was created in order to monitor the movement, and the exact position of the points was determined using a dual-frequency GPS at 5timescales. The precipitation data and their characteristics such as the amount of precipitation, maximum intensity of 10, 20, 30, 60 minutes, average of precipitation, height of snow, average and total duration of precipitation were also calculated for each timescale. Finally, the relationship and correlation between the amount of displacement and the characteristics of precipitation was investigated by determining the vertical and horizontal displacement at the 5 timescales and the characteristics of precipitation for each period of time.

4. Results and Discussion
In the total period of the study, 64 precipitation events happened in which the total of precipitation was more than 2 mm in 52 cases. Drawing displacement vectors of the points on the topographic map revealed that the direction of mass movement is consistent with the general slope of the region. The correlation between rainfall characteristics and the amount of horizontal and vertical displacement of the monitoring points at the five timescales are provided in Table 7. The results showed that among all the characteristics of precipitation, rainfall intensity features have more solidarity with the average of horizontal and vertical displacement of points at the five timescales. Moreover, no significant correlation was found between other characteristics of precipitation and the amount of displacement.

Table 7. Correlation between rainfall characteristics and the amount of displacement
Displacement Precipitation duration Average duration of precipitation Snow height Amount of precipitation Average intensity Precipitation intensity in time intervals
(mm/hr)
10 20 30 60
Vertical 0.005 0.01 0.017 0.005 0.028 0.61 0.39 0.37 0.42
horizontal 0.091 0.117 0.102 0.059 0.854 0.364 0.598 0.657 0.52

5. Conclusion
The analyses of displacement at the five timescales showed that the relative displacement has occurred at some points of the network. Although there have been slow vertical and horizontal displacement at all points in the network but the amount of movement is clearly visible at the points of 1, 2, 6 and 8. The total amount of horizontal displacement of moving points at the five timescales (511 days) was 1876mm with the monthly rate of 110 mm. The total amount of vertical displacement of moving points was also 898 mm with the monthly rate of 56 mm. The results also showed that among the different characteristics of precipitation, only the intensity of precipitation has a good correlation with the amount of landslide displacement. Previous studies have also achieved similar conclusions about the triggering role of precipitation and the relationship between the intensity of rainfall and the landslide occurrence. The highest coefficient of correlation was found between the average intensity of precipitation and the maximum rainfall of 30 minutes with the horizontal movement of the sliding mass. Generally, it can be concluded that several factors such as topography, soil, geology, land use and intensity of precipitation caused favorable conditions for the occurrence of Tavan sliding; however, in this landslide, rainfall intensity has played the role of a trigger.

Keywords

• Monitoring
• Precipitation Characteristics
• Tavan landslide
• Displacement
• Dual-frequency GPS

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