Assessing landslide damming susceptibility in Central Asia
Tacconi Stefanelli C. Frodella W. Caleca F. Raimbekova Z. Umaraliev R. Tofani V.
14 May 2024Copernicus Publications
Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
2024#24Issue 51697 - 1720 pp.
Central Asia regions are characterized by active tectonics, high mountain chains with extreme topography with glaciers, and strong seasonal rainfall events. These key predisposing factors make large landslides a serious natural threat in the area, causing several casualties every year. The mountain crests are divided by wide lenticular or narrow, linear intermountain tectonic depressions, which are incised by many of the most important Central Asia rivers and are also subject to major seasonal river flood hazard. This multi-hazard combination is a source of potential damming scenarios, which can bring cascading effects with devastating consequences for the surrounding settlements and population. Different hazards can only be managed with a multi-hazard approach coherent within the different countries, as suggested by the requirements of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. This work was carried out within the framework of the Strengthening Financial Resilience and Accelerating Risk Reduction in Central Asia (SFRARR) project as part of a multi-hazard approach with the aim of providing a damming susceptibility analysis at a regional scale for Central Asia. To achieve this, a semi-automated GIS-based mapping method, centered on a bivariate correlation of morphometric parameters defined by a morphological index, originally designed to assess the damming susceptibility at basin/regional scale, was modified to be adopted nationwide and applied to spatially assess the obstruction of the river network in Central Asia for mapped and newly formed landslides. The proposed methodology represents an improvement to the previously designed methodology, requiring a smaller amount of data, bringing new preliminary information on damming hazard management and risk reduction, and identifying the most critical area within the Central Asia regions.
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Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, via G. la Pira 4, Florence, 50121, Italy
UNESCO Chair on the Prevention and Sustainable Management of Geo-Hydrological Hazards, University of Florence, Largo Fermi 2, Florence, 50125, Italy
Institute of Seismology of Republic of Kazakhstan (IS), Almaty, Kazakhstan
Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi ave. 71, Almaty, A15E3C7, Kazakhstan
Institute of Seismology of the National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyz Republic (ISNASKR), Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Department of Earth Sciences
UNESCO Chair on the Prevention and Sustainable Management of Geo-Hydrological Hazards
Institute of Seismology of Republic of Kazakhstan (IS)
Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences
Institute of Seismology of the National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyz Republic (ISNASKR)
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