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The earthquake that occurred on 6 September 2018, in the eastern part of the Iburi region of Hokkaido, Japan (the Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake) caused thousands of shallow landslides in mountain areas. In areas where many landslides occurred, the trees on the slope became large woody debris (LWD) and were supplied to the catchment. Understanding the properties of LWD during the earthquake and its subsequent movement after the earthquake are important to manage the produced LWD and implement disaster prevention measures. This study evaluates the risk of future LWD disasters based on the sequence of LWD generation, its spatial distribution, and LWD relocation linked to temporal fluctuations in rainfall events. The study site is the upper Habiu River catchment (0.37 km2), where multiple shallow earthquake-related landslides occurred. Orthophotos and elevation data acquired before and after the earthquake were used to detect the properties of LWD. To evaluate the risk of an LWD disaster, we examined the correspondence between the hydraulic quantities, including the precipitation for 2 years after the earthquake and the water depth. It was estimated that approximately 7,000 LWD pieces (9,119 m3 km−2) were produced during the earthquake. Orthophoto interpretations indicate that over 80% of the LWD produced at the time of the landslide moved from the slope to the channel accompanied by the landslide debris; some of that then flowed down, accumulated, and formed logjams. In the river channel approximately two years after the earthquake, the destruction of logjams and the clear and drastic movement of LWD could not be confirmed. In this catchment, the uneven LWD distribution and the formation of logjams were fixed almost immediately after the landslide at the time of the earthquake; these characteristics are important when considering future actions. The water depth evaluation based on the difference in the excess return period indicate that the degree of risk differs depending on the deposition location in the channel. This suggests that not all LWD in the catchment are dangerous and that a risk assessment focusing on the LWD location can be effective. This study also makes it possible to determine high priority areas for LWD treatment.

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Disturbances in forest ecosystems are expected to increase by the end of the twenty-first century. An understanding of these disturbed areas is critical to defining management measures to improve forest resilience. While some studies emphasize the importance of quick salvage logging, others emphasize the importance of the deadwood for biodiversity. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing is playing an important role to acquire information in these areas through the structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry process. However, the technique faces challenges due to the fundamental principle of SfM photogrammetry as a passive optical method. In this study, we investigated a UAV video-based technology called full motion video (FMV) to identify fallen and snapped trees in a windthrow area. We compared the performance of FMV and an orthomosaic, created by the SfM photogrammetry process, to manually identify fallen and snapped trees, using a ground survey as a reference. The results showed that FMV was able to identify both types of damaged trees due to the ability of video to deliver better context awareness compared to the orthomosaic, although providing lower position accuracy. In addition to its processing being simpler, FMV technology showed great potential to support the interpretation of conventional UAV remote sensing analysis and ground surveys, providing forest managers with fast and reliable information about damaged trees in windthrow areas.