Overview of some empirical methods to correlate rainfall and shallow landslide and applications in Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysia is located in a tropical region, known to have an extremely high annual rainfall which frequently triggered a landslide. If a landslide early warning system to be developed in Malaysia, it should be implemented based on empirical correlation of rainfall data and landslide cases. The proposed method is more economical compared to physically based approach. In this paper, two types of empirical rainfall thresholds were discussed i.e. (1) Intensity versus Duration (ID) and (2) Intensity versus Working Rainfall. Three efforts in correlating rainfall and landslides empirically in Malaysia were also been discussed. Intensity versus Duration (ID) method was used for works in Ampang/Hulu Kelang and Penang areas whereas Intensity versus Working Rainfall method was used for Cameron Highland area. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.