Landslide Susceptibility Mapping in the Vrancea-Buzău Seismic Region, Southeast Romania

Abstract

This study presents the results of a landslide susceptibility analysis applied to the Vrancea-Buzău seismogenic region in the Carpathian Mountains, Romania. The target area is affected by a large diversity of landslide processes. Slopes are made-up of various types of rocks, climatic conditions can be classified as wet, and the area is a seismically active one. All this contributes to the observed high landslide hazard. The paper analyses the spatial component of the landslide hazard affecting the target area, the regional landslide susceptibility. First, an existing landslide inventory was completed to cover a wider area for the landslide susceptibility analysis. Second, two types of methods are applied, a purely statistical technique, based on correlations between landslide occurrence and local conditions, as well as the simplified spatial process-based Newmark Displacement analysis. Landslide susceptibility maps have been produced by applying both methods, the second one also allowing us to simulate different scenarios, based on various soil saturation rates and seismic inputs. Furthermore, landslide susceptibility was computed both for the landslide source and runout zones—the first providing information about areas where landslides are preferentially triggered and the second indicating where landslides preferentially move along the slope and accumulate. The analysis showed that any of the different methods applied produces reliable maps of landslide susceptibility. However, uncertainties were also outlined as validation is insufficient, especially in the northern area, where only a few landslides could be mapped due to the intense vegetation cover.

Earthquake-induced landslide hazard assessment in the Vrancea Seismic Region (Eastern Carpathians, Romania): Constraints and perspectives

“…As Varlaam and Lacul Vulturilor landslides) combined with numerical models (see example by Mreyen et al, 2021, an approach which could be followed elsewhere, in regions of similar seismicity) found a precise local linkage between the high-magnitude earthquakes and large, medium to deep-seated rock slides, but without enough representativity to allow for a regional assessment (preliminary results have been presented e.g. by Damen et al, 2014 andHarmouzi et al, 2021). In the meantime, the importance of these studies in developing proper regional-tonational multi-hazard risk reduction strategies has been outlined in the national priority project J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f…”

“…-the generation of reliable EqIL hazard zonation, showing the distribution of hazard classes within different return periods. The few contributions to this topic (Micu et al, 2015;Micu, 2017;Harmouzi et al, 2021), reveal that this approach is still in its early stages in Romania.…”

“…The aforementioned results made possible, for a representative area at the Buzău Carpathians-Subcarpathians contact, several primary evaluations of the EqIL susceptibility based on Newmark Displacement (Micu et al, 2015;Micu, 2017), which were followed by those of Harmouzi et al, (2021). The comparison with the results of other landslide susceptibility assessments focusing on the VSR, but employing different methods (e.g.…”

Greening Roadway Infrastructure with Vetiver Grass to Support Transportation Resilience

“…First and foremost, despite the increasing demand for green infrastructure driven both by climate change and disasters, there is limited awareness and understanding of how specific tools such as vetiver can be used more widely in transportation projects. The barriers to adaptation identified by Dowds and Aultman-Hall (2015), including the management of uncertainties and the need for vulnerability assessment tools and metrics for asset criticality, are just as relevant to Kaua'i as other states [66,67]. Second, there is more appreciation and experience with green approaches in developing countries, which provide valuable experience to integrate it with conventional approaches.…”