HR: 1340h
AN: H43C-0507    [Abstracts]
TI: Landslides Are Common In The Amazon Rainforests Of SE Peru
AU: * Khanal, S P
EM: s.khanal@tcu.edu
AF: Geology, Texas Christian University TCU Box 292931, Fort Worth, TX 76129 United States
AU: Muttiah, R S
EM: r.muttiah@tcu.edu
AF: Geology, Texas Christian University TCU Box 292931, Fort Worth, TX 76129 United States
AU: Janovec, J P
EM: jjanovec@brit.org
AF: Botanical Res. Inst. Texas, 509 Pecan Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102-4060 United States
AB: The recent landslides in La Conchita, California, Mumbai, India, Ratnapura, Sri Lanka and Sugozu village, Turkey have dramatically illustrated prolonged rainfall on water induced change in soil shear stress. In these examples, the human footprint may have also erased or altered the natural river drainage from small to large scales. By studying patterns of landslides in natural ecosystems, government officials, policy makers, engineers, geologists and others may be better informed about likely success of prevention or amelioration programs in risk prone areas. Our study area in the Los Amigos basin in Amazon rainforests of Southeastern Peru, has recorded several hundred landslides. The area has no large human settlements. The basin is characterized by heavy rainfall, dense vegetation, river meander and uniform soils. Our objectives were: 1). Determine the spatial pattern of landslides using GIS and Remotely sensed data, 2). Model the statistical relationship between environmental variables and, 3). Evaluate influence of drainage on landscape and soil loss. GIS layers consisted of: 50cm aerial imagery, DEMs, digitized streams, soils, geology, rainfall from the TRMM satellite, and vegetation cover from the LANDSAT and MODIS sensors.
DE: 1810 Debris flow and landslides
DE: 1819 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
DE: 1820 Floodplain dynamics
DE: 1839 Hydrologic scaling
DE: 1856 River channels (0483, 0744)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005