Landslide early warning system development using statistical analysis of sensors’ data at tangni landslide, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

Rainfall induced landslides account for over 200 deaths and loss of over Rs.550 crores annually in Himalaya. Literature suggests sensors based site specific Early Warning System (EWS) to be feasible and economic to curtail losses due to landslides for high risk areas. Area selected for current study is Tangni landslide located in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state, India due to high anticipated risk to the local community residing nearby. For realization of EWS, a near real time instrumentation setup was installed on the slope. The setup measures pore water pressure, sub-surface deformations, and surface displacements along with rainfall. Regression analysis models are developed using antecedent rainfall and deformation data which are further used to find out thresholds for sensors based on z-scores. In future using the results from the sensors installed in the field and laboratory characterizations, numerical analyses will be applied to develop a process based model.