Landslide displacement analysis based on fractal theory, in Wanzhou District, Three Gorges Reservoir, China

Abstract

Slow moving landslide is a major disaster in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. It is difficult to compare the deformation among different parts of this kind of landslide through GPS measurements when the displacement of different monitoring points is similar in values. So far, studies have been seldom carried out to find out the information hidden behind those GPS monitoring data to solve this problem. Therefore, in this study, three landslides were chosen to perform landslide displacement analysis based on fractal theory. The major advantage of this study is that it has not only considered the values of the displacement of those GPS monitoring points, but also considered the moving traces of them. This allows to reveal more information from GPS measurements and to obtain a broader understanding of the deformation history on different parts of a unique landslide, especially for slow moving landslides. The results proved that using the fractal dimension as an indicator is reliable to estimate the deformation of each landslide and to represent landslide deformation on both spatial and temporal scales. The results of this study could make sense to those working on landslide hazard and risk assessment and land use planning.