The evolution pattern and influence of human activities of landslide driving factors in Wulong section of the Three Gorges Reservoir area

Abstract

Human activities have play an important role in the spatial distribution of landslides, accompanied by rapid urbanization. This research takes Wulong district of Chongqing as an example, the research data are 330 historical landslides from 1991 to 2015. The spatio-temporal evolution pattern of landslide was revealed, with the aid of gravity model and standard deviation ellipse model; and the driving factors of landslide distribution in three time periods, 2001—2005, 2006—2010, and 2011—2015, were analyzed using GeoDetector. The results show that: (1) In terms of temporal distribution, the cumulative landslide curve of Wulong shows the characteristics of slow-steep-slow. Before 2008, the occurrence rate of landslide increased with the increase of rainfall, and then decreased significantly when the rainfall remained stable; (2) In terms of spatial distribution, Wulong’s landslides were clustered in three hotspots, and showed a change process from northwest-southeast direction to northeast-southwest direction, with a trend of weakening directionality and dispersion; (3) In terms of driving factors, the explanatory power of factors such as rainfall, geology and geomorphology is decreasing, however, the explanatory power of human activity factors is increasing and has gradually become one of the key influencing factors on landslide distribution. The research results can provide an important support for the landslide disaster prevention and mitigation in the Three Gorges reservoir area.

Keywords

• three gorges reservoir area
• landslides
• geodetector
• explanatory power
• human activity
• driving factors