A Rainfall Intensity-Duration Threshold for Landslides in a Humid-Tropical Environment, Puerto Rico

Early warning of rainfall-induced shallow landslides and debris flows in the USA

“…A decade later, loss of personnel and inadequate funding resulted in closure of the system (Wilson 2004). However, major landslide-inducing storms during the late 1980s and 1990s stimulated continued research into local or regional precipitation thresholds for landslide occurrence (Wieczorek 1987;Jibson 1989;Wilson et al 1992;Larsen and Simon 1993;Wilson and Wieczorek 1995;Montgomery et al 2000;Wieczorek et al 2000;Wiley 2000;Chleborad 2000Chleborad , 2003. Increasing severity of wildfires in the western USA stimulated new research on debris flows from burned areas, including development of precipitation thresholds for recently burned areas (Cannon et al 2003(Cannon et al , 2008Cannon and Gartner 2005).…”

“…Most thresholds currently in use are based on analysis of historical landslide and rainfall data, and many published thresholds were developed from data derived from only a few storms and (Wilson and Wieczorek 1995), SBC San Francisco Bay Area, CA (Cannon and Ellen 1985), KH-A Kaluanui area, Oahu, HI, "abundant" threshold (Wilson et al 1992), KH-S Kaluanui area, Oahu, HI "safety" threshold (Wilson et al 1992), NH-A, Nuuanu area, Oahu, HI, "abundant" threshold (Wilson et al 1992), NH-S Nuuanu area, Oahu, HI, "safety" threshold (Wilson et al 1992), SMC Santa Monica Mountains, southern California (Campbell 1975), PR Puerto Rico (Larsen and Simon 1993), BRV Blue Ridge Mountains, VA (Wieczorek et al 2000), WW-C worldwide (Caine 1980), WW-G worldwide (Guzzetti et al 2008), AC Rocky Mountain alpine areas, CO (Menounos 1994), CCC Chalk Cliffs, Chafee County, CO (Coe et al 2008), BSWC burned areas in southwestern Colorado (Cannon et al 2008), BSCC burned areas in south-central Colorado (Cannon et al 2008), BSC-1 burned areas, southern California, first year (Cannon et al 2008), BSC-2 burned areas, southern California, second year (Cannon et al 2008), BVC-1 burned areas, Ventura County southern California, first year (Cannon et al 2008) Sources of data, San Francisco Bay area, Keefer et al (1987); La Honda, CA, Wieczorek and Sarmiento (1988); Santa Monica Mountains, CA, Campbell (1975); western Oregon, Wiley (2000); Seattle abundant landslides, Godt et al (2006); Seattle three or more landslides in 3 days, Chleborad et al (2008); burned and sparsely vegetated areas, Cannon and Gartner (2005), Coe et al (2008) thus have a high degree of uncertainty. Some authors have taken the approach of defining a minimum or "safety" threshold for rainfall amounts or intensity-duration combinations that have historically produced a few landslides and an "abundant" threshold for rainfall that has historically produced many landslides (Wilson et al 1992;Wilson 2004).…”

Spatial features of debris flows and their rainfall thresholds in the Wenchuan earthquake-affected area

“…It is worth mentioning that rainfall intensity-duration (I-D) thresholds for debris flow occurrence used in the aforementioned studies are superior to the rainfall intensity or rainfall amount thresholds because the former take into account rainfall processes and rainfall types. Therefore, the rainfall I-D threshold is the most common type of threshold used and has been widely applied in different climatic and geologic settings (Caine 1980;Jibson 1989;Larsen and Simon 1993;Aleotti 2004;Gabet et al 2004;Hong et al 2005;Chen et al 2005;Cannon et al 2008;Dahal and Hasegawa 2008;Guzzetti et al 2007Guzzetti et al , 2008Saito et al 2010;). However, a review of databases indicates that these thresholds can hardly account accurately for debris flows throughout the entire region.…”

Prediction of ground displacements and velocities from groundwater level changes at the Vallcebre landslide (Eastern Pyrenees, Spain)

“…The fundamental assumption is that, in a homogeneous region, landslides occur once a precipitation threshold has been overcome. The threshold is usually expressed as rainfall intensity-duration relationship (Caine 1980;Cancelli and Nova 1985;Wieczorek 1987;Larsen and Simon 1993) and it has been used with some degree of success as a warning system in areas affected by widespread and recurrent shallow landsliding (Keefer et al 1987).…”