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Impact of communal irrigation on the 2018 Palu earthquake-triggered landslides

Nature Geoscience volume 12, pages 940–945 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Anthropogenic changes to the environment can enhance earthquake-triggered landslides, yet their role in earthquake disasters is often overlooked. Co-seismic landslides frequently involve liquefaction of granular materials, a process that reduces shear strength and facilitates downslope motion even on gentle slopes. Irrigation systems can increase liquefaction susceptibility and compromise otherwise stable slopes. Here we investigate devastating landslides that affected Palu, Indonesia, during the 28 September 2018 earthquake of moment magnitude 7.5. We document fields and buildings translated over 1 km down slopes of <2° and show that landslides were limited to irrigated ground. A liquefied detachment was rooted upslope in a conveyance canal that supplied water to the irrigation network. A strong correlation between landslide displacement, irrigation infrastructure and the highest slopes (≥1.5°) suggests a causative mechanism that should provoke urgent assessment of gently sloping irrigated terrain elsewhere in Sulawesi and in tectonically active areas worldwide.

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Fig. 1: Regional context and overview.

Base map in a adapted from Natural Earth (http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/). In b,c, base digital elevation model derived from 12.5 m TanDEM-X topographic data, German Aerospace Center (DLR) e.V., Microwaves and Radar Institute, Pol-InSAR. In c, 2018 surface rupture data adapted from ref. 21, Springer Nature Ltd

Fig. 2: Landslides and irrigation, eastern Palu valley.

Base images in b–d, ©2018 Google and DigitalGlobe

Fig. 3: Structural maps of two representative landslides.
Fig. 4: Landslide displacement and controlling parameters.

In b, slope raster derived from 12.5 m TanDEM-X topographic data, German Aerospace Center (DLR) e.V., Microwaves and Radar Institute, Pol-InSAR

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Data availability

Geospatial data generated during this project, including landslide displacement measurements, liquefaction indicators and digitised irrigation infrastructure, are available at https://royalholloway.figshare.com/articles/Geospatial_Data/9205184. The post-earthquake satellite scene is available via Google Earth, at https://www.google.com/earth/download/gep/agree.html, and via DigitalGlobe at https://discover.digitalglobe.com/. Sentinel 2B data can be downloaded from the Copernicus Open Access Hub: https://scihub.copernicus.eu/dhus/#/home. TanDEM-X 90 m data can be downloaded via the German Aerospace Centre: https://geoservice.dlr.de/web/dataguide/tdm90/, and the application page for ~12 m data is https://tandemx-science.dlr.de/cgi-bin/wcm.pl?page = TDM-Proposal-Submission-Procedure.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the TanDEM-X Science Communication Team (German Aerospace Center (DLR)) for providing the TanDEM-X topographic data.

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  1. SE Asia Research Group, Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK

    Ian M. Watkinson & Robert Hall

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  1. Ian M. Watkinson
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Contributions

I.M.W. carried out the satellite image interpretation, wrote the manuscript and created the figures. R.H. contributed to image interpretation, worked on image georeferencing, processed the TanDEM elevation model and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ian M. Watkinson.

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Watkinson, I.M., Hall, R. Impact of communal irrigation on the 2018 Palu earthquake-triggered landslides. Nat. Geosci. 12, 940–945 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0448-x

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