Temporal and spatial differentiation in the landslide sediment transfer potential in Wenchuan earthquake-impacted areas
摘要
In seismically disturbed regions, sufficient landslide sediments are continuously transported from hillslopes to channels and affect debris flow activity. Existing studies on the prolonged impact of the Wenchuan earthquake are primarily aimed at landslide activity, detailed analysis of differences in the change of landslide sediment transfer at a large scale is quite lacking in different regions. To fill this substantial knowledge gap, we selected three typical regions (Wenchuan region, Beichuan region, and Qingping region) to investigate the temporal and spatial evolution of landslide sediment transfer potential. In this study, a first-order indicator of the transport potential of landslide sediments on hillslopes was used to monitor the spatiotemporal changes in the transport potential of landslide sediment on hillslopes in three regions. The results suggest that the landslide sediment transfer potential in the hanging wall area of the Yingxiu–Beichuan fault zone was greater than that in other areas in the first 5 years of the Wenchuan earthquake, but the areas with higher landslide sediment transfer potential were mainly concentrated in the middle and upper reaches of each basin in recent years. The landslide sediment transfer potential gradually evolves from extreme and high level to moderate, slight, and low levels, and the decay rate of landslide sediment transfer potential is the fastest in Wenchuan regions, followed by Qingping region and Beichuan region. Generally, the landslide sediment transport potential in the Wenchuan, Qingping, and Beichuan regions may recover to pre-seismic levels by 2038, 2028, and 2025, respectively, without the impact of extreme rainfall. Importantly, the landslide sediment transfer potential in Wenchuan region was dominated by moderate and slight, which accounting for 78.33% of the Wenchuan region. However, the Qingping and Beichuan regions were dominated by slight and low landslide sediment transfer potential, which accounting for 94.21% and 82.78% of the region, respectively, in recent years.