Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Delineation of areas with different temporal behavior of soil properties at a landslide affected Alpine hillside using time-lapse electromagnetic data

  • Thematic Issue
  • Published:
Environmental Earth Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Landslide activity is largely controlled by changes in soil properties, particularly soil moisture and the corresponding changes in pore pressure within the vadose zone. While knowledge of changes in soil conditions is of utmost importance for the prediction of landslides, it is difficult to obtain reliable information on the field scale. A possibility of filling that information gap is the monitoring of changes in soil properties by time-lapse electromagnetic induction (EMI) data. Given the relative stability of soil properties, changes in apparent electric conductivity (ECa) are mainly related to changes in soil water content and its mineralization. Thus, we use time-lapse ECa data over a nine-month period from different investigation depths (0.75, 1.5, 3, and 6 m) to separate areas with different temporal behavior of soil properties. However, working with time-lapse EMI data raised the comparability problem since the recoded ECa is also affected by several day-specific survey conditions (e.g., instrument temperature, operator). Consequently, the reproducibility of accurate ECa measurements is difficult due to potential dynamic shifts which hinders a direct comparing. We introduce in this study a straightforward method for comparability of ECa values from different time steps by normalization of data ranges assuming that the majority of shifts of measured data originate from field calibration. We identify the intensity of spatial changes by means of the standard deviation (SD) as an indication for the intensity of soil properties variability. To obtain the temporal changes and its progression over time, we separate the dynamic signal from the background. A two-layer system could be identified: one shallow more dynamic layer with an east–west-oriented structure and a deeper, more stationary layer with a north–south-oriented structure. The ECa dynamics of the shallow layer is related to the altitude (R 2 = 0.84) while the deeper dynamics follow a different regime. The decreasing of ECa dynamics with depth was consistent with the decreasing of SWC dynamics observed by previous studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdu H, Robinson DA, Seyfried M, Jones SB (2008) Geophysical imaging of watershed subsurface patterns and prediction of soil texture and water holding capacity. Water Resour Res 44, W00D18. doi:10.1029/2008WR007043

  • Adamchuk VI, Mat Su AS, Eigenberg RA, Ferguson RB (2011) Development of an angular scanning system for sensing vertical profiles of soil electrical conductivity. Trans ASABE 54(3):1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akramkhanov A, Brus DJ, Walvoort DJJ (2014) Geostatistical monitoring of soil salinity in Uzbekistan by repeated EMI surveys. Geoderma 213:600–607

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altdorff D, Dietrich P (2012) Combination of electromagnetic induction (EMI) and gamma-spectrometry using K-means clustering: a study for evaluation of site partitioning. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci. doi:10.1002/jpln.201100262

    Google Scholar 

  • Amakor XN, Cardon GE, Symanzik J, Jacobson A (2013) A new electromagnetic induction calibration model for estimating low range salinity in calcareous soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 77(3):985–1000

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archie GE (1942) The electrical resistivity log as an aid in determining some reservoir characteristics. Pet Trans AIME 146:54–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avci O, Ehlers W (2008) Realisation and modelling of geotechnical experiments. Proc Appl Math Mech 8:10401–10402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BeVille SH, Mirus BB, Ebel BA, Mader GG, Loague K (2010) Using simulated hydrologic response to revisit the 1973 Lerida Court landslide. Environ Earth Sci 61(6):1249–1257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boebel O, Kindermann L, Klinck H, Bornemann H, Plotz J, Steinhage D, Riedel S, Burkhardt E (2006) Satellite remote sensing for global landslide monitoring. EOS (Trans Am Geophys Union) 87(37):357–358

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogena H, Herbst M, Huisman JA, Rosenbaum U, Weuthen A, Vereecken H (2010) Potential of wireless sensor networks for measuring soil water content variability. Vadose Zone J 9(4):1002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brechet L, Oatham M, Wuddivira M, Robinson DA (2012) Determining spatial variation in soil properties in teak and native tropical forest plots using electromagnetic induction. Vadose Zone J 11(4). doi:10.2136/vzj2011.0164

  • Brevik EC, Fenton TE, Lazari A (2006) Soil electrical conductivity as a function of soil water content and implications for soil mapping. Precis Agric 7(6):393–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brocca L, Melone F, Moramarco T, Morbidelli R (2010) Spatial-temporal variability of soil moisture and its estimation across scales. Water Resour Res 46:W02516, 14

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan S, Triantafilis J (2009) Mapping water table depth using geophysical and environmental variables. Ground Water 47:80–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Camera C, Masetti M, Apuani A (2012) Rainfall, infiltration, and groundwater flow in a terraced slope of Valtellina (Northern Italy): field data and modelling. Environ Earth Sci 65(4):1191–1202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CEN, European Committee for Standardization (2011) Best practice approach for electromagnetic induction measurements of the near surface, Approved Business Plan, CEN Workshop 59

  • Chae BG, Kim MI (2012) Suggestion of a method for landslide early warning using the change in the volumetric water content gradient due to rainfall infiltration. Environ Earth Sci 66:1973–1986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers JE, Wilkinson PB, Kuras O, Ford JR, Gunn DA, Meldrum PI, Pennington CVL, Weller AL, Hobbs PRN, Ogilvy RD (2011) Three-dimensional geophysical anatomy of an active landslide in Lias Group mudrocks, Cleveland basin, UK. Geomorphology 125(4):472–484

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crave E, Gascuel-Odoux C (1997) The influence of topography on time and space distribution of soil surface water content. Hydrol Process 11:203–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dafflon B, Hubbard SS, Ulrich C, Peterson JE (2013) Electrical conductivity imaging of active layer and permafrost in an Arctic ecosystem, through advanced inversion of electromagnetic induction data. Vadose Zone J. doi:10.2136/vzj2012.0161

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietrich P (1999) Konzeption und Auswertung gleichstromgeoelektrischer Tracerversuche unter Verwendung von Sensitivitätskoeffizienten. Tübinger Geowissenschaftliche Arbeiten 130 S

  • Domsch H, Giebel A (2004) Estimation of soil textural features from soil electrical conductivity recorded using the EM38. Precis Agric 5:389–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehlers W, Graf T, Ammann M (2004) Deformation and localization analysis of partially saturated soil. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 193:2885–2910

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Famiglietti JS, Rudnicki JW, Rodell M (1998) Variability in surface moisture content along a hill slope transect: Rattlesnake Hill, Texas. J Hydrol 210:259–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayley K, Bentley LR (2007) Low temperature dependence of electrical resistivity: implications for near surface geophysical monitoring. Geophys Res Lett 34, L18402:5. doi:10.1029/GL03112

  • He KQ, Wang SQ, Du W, Wang SJ (2010) Dynamics features and effects of rainfall on landslides in the three Gorges Reservoir region, China: using the Xintan landslide and the large Huangya landslide as the examples. Environ Earth Sci 59:1267–1274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hedley CB, Yule IY, Eastwood CR, Shepherd TG, Arnold G (2004) Rapid identification of soil textural and management zones using electromagnetic induction sensing of soils. Aust J Soil Res 42:389–400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huth NI, Poulton PL (2007) An electromagnetic induction method for monitoring variation in soil moisture in agroforestry systems. Aust J Soil Res 45:63–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • International Union of Geological Sciences Working Group on Landslides (1995) A suggested method for describing the rate of movement of a landslide. Bull Eng Geol Environ 52:75–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Iverson IM (2005) Regulation of landslide motion by dilitancy and pore pressure feedback. J Geophys Res 110

  • Khan YA, Lateh H, Baten MA, Kamil AA (2012) Critical antecedent rainfall conditions for shallow landslides in Chittagong City of Bangladesh. Environ Earth Sci 67(1):97–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim MI, Kim JS, Kim NW, Jeong GC (2011) Surface geophysical investigations of landslide at the Wiri area in southeastern Korea. Environ Earth Sci 63(5):999–1009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirschbaum DB, Fukuoka H (2012) Remote sensing and modeling of landslides: detection, monitoring and risk evaluation. Environ Earth Sci 66:1583. doi:10.1007/s12665-012-1543-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koszinski S, Gerke HH, Hierold W, Sommer M (2013) Michael Sommer geophysical-based modeling of a kettle hole catchment of the morainic soil landscape. Vadoze Zone J. doi:10.2136/vzj2013.02.0044

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavoué F, van der Kruk J, Rings J, Andre F, Moghadas D, Huisman JA, Lambot S, Weihermüller L, van der Borght J, Vereecken H (2010) Electromagnetic induction calibration using apparent electrical conductivity modelling based on electrical resistivity tomography. Near Surf Geophys 8:553–561

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lepore C, Kamal SA, Shanahan P, Bras RL (2012) Rainfall-induced landslide susceptibility zonation of Puerto Rico. Environ Earth Sci 66:1667–1681

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li D, Yin KL, Leo C (2010) Analysis of Baishuihe landslide influenced by the effects of reservoir water and rainfall. Environ Earth Sci 60(4):677–687

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liao Z, Hong Y, Kirschbaum D, Liu C (2012) Assessment of shallow landslides from Hurricane Mitch in central America using a physically based model. Environ Earth Sci 66(6):1697–1705

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindenmaier F, Zehe E, Dittfurth A, Ihringer J (2005) Process identification at a slow-moving landslide in the Vorarlberg Alps. Hydrol Process 19(8):1635–1651

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malet JP, Maquaire O, Locat J, Remaitre A (2004) Assessing debris flow hazards associated with slow moving landslides: methodology and numerical analyses. Landslides 1(1):83–90

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez G, Vanderlinden K, Giraldez JV, Espejo AJ, Muriel JL (2010) Field-scale soil moisture pattern mapping using electromagnetic induction. Vadose Zone J 9:871–881

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNeil JD (1980) Electromagnetic terrain conductivity measurement at low induction numbers. Geonics Ltd., Technical note TN-6, Mississauga, Canada

  • Mester A, van der Kruk J, Zimmermann E, Vereecken H (2011) Quantitative two-layer conductivity inversion of multi-configuration electromagnetic induction measurements. Vadose Zone J 10:1319–1330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nyberg L (1996) Spatial variability of soil water content in the covered catchment at Gardsjon, Sweden. Hydrol Process 10:89–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parajka J, Naeimi V, Bloschl G, Wagner W, Merz R, Scipal K (2006) Assimilating scatterometer soil moisture data into conceptual hydrologic models at the regional scale. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 10:353–368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pellerin L, Wannamaker PE (2005) Multi-dimensional electromagnetic modeling and inversion with application to near-surface earth investigations. Comput Electron Agric 46:71–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pons NAD, Pejon OJ, Zuquette LV (2007) Use of geoprocessing in the study of land degradation in urban environments: the case of the city of Sao Carlos, state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Environ Geol 53:727–739

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popp S, Altdorff D, Dietrich P (2013) Assessment of shallow subsurface characterization with non-invasive geophysical methods at the intermediate hill-slope scale. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 9:2511–2539. doi:10.5194/hessd-9-2511-2012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rein A, Hoffmann R, Dietrich P (2004) Influence of natural time-dependent variations of electrical conductivity on DC resistivity measurements. J Hydrol 285:215–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson NJ, Rampant PC, Callinan APL, Rab MA, Fisher PD (2009) Advances in precision agriculture in south-eastern Australia. Ii. Spatio-temporal prediction of crop yield using terrain derivatives and proximally sensed data. Crop Pasture Sci 60:859–869

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson DA, Abdu H, Lebron I, Jones SB (2012) Imaging of hill-slope soil moisture wetting patterns in a semi-arid oak savanna catchment using time-lapse electromagnetic induction. J Hydrol 419–417:39–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santos RNS, Porsani JL (2011) Comparing performance of instrumental drift correction by linear and quadratic adjusting in inductive electromagnetic data. J Appl Geophys 73:1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider U (1999) Geotechnische Untersuchungen, satellitengestützte (GPS) Bewegungsanalysen und Standsicherheitsüberlegungen an einem Kriechhang in EBNIT. University of Karlsruhe, Vorarlberg

    Google Scholar 

  • Sidle RC, Ochiai H (2006) Landslides: processes, prediction, and land use. AGU, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Talebi A, Uijlenhoet R, Troch PA (2007) Soil moisture storage and hill slope stability. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 7:523–534

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Triantafilis J, Lesch SM (2005) Mapping clay content variation using electromagnetic induction techniques. Comput Electron Agric 46:203–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsai TL, Wang JK (2011) Examination of influences of rainfall patterns on shallow landslides due to dissipation of matric suction. Environ Earth Sci 63(1):65–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Asch TWJ, van Dijck SJE, Hendriks MR (2001) The role of overland flow and subsurface flow on the spatial distribution of soil moisture in the topsoil. Hydrol Process 15:2325–2340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Asch TWJ, Malet JP, Bogaard TA (2009) The effect of groundwater fluctuations on the velocity pattern of slow-moving landslides. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 9:739–749

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Von Hebel C, Rudolf S, Mester A, Huisman JA, Kumbhar P, Vereecken H, Van der Kruk J (2014) Three-dimensional imaging of subsurface structural patterns using quantitative large-scale multi-configuration electromagnetic induction data. WRR. doi:10.1002/2013WR014864

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner W, Pathe C, Doubkova M, Sabel D, Bartsch A, Hasenauer S, Bloschl G, Scipal K, Martinez-Fernandez J, Low A (2008) Temporal stability of soil moisture and radar backscatter observed by the advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR). Sensors 8:1174–1197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walter M, Walser M, Joswig M (2011) Mapping rainfall-triggered slidequakes and seismic landslide-volume estimation at Heumoes slope. Vadose Zone J 10(2):487–495

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wienhöfer J, Lindenmaier F, Zehe E (2011) Challenges in understanding the hydrologic controls on the mobility of slow-moving landslides. Vadose Zone J 10(2):496–511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong MTF, Oliver YM, Robertson MJ (2009) Gamma-radiometric assessment of soil depth across a landscape not measurable using electromagnetic surveys. Soil Sci Soc Am J 73:1261–1267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu Q, Lin H, Doolittle J (2010) Repeated electromagnetic induction surveys for determining subsurface hydrologic dynamics in an agricultural landscape. Soil Sci Am 74(5):1750–1762

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to offer thanks to David Sauer, Steffen Popp for the support during field work, as well as the students from the Universities of Potsdam for taking the soil samples. The authors also acknowledge the DFG research project 581 Coupling of Flow and Deformation Processes for Modeling the Movement of Natural Slopes and the Helmholtz research platform MOSAIC for furnishing the technical equipment. We finally thank to the anonymous reviewers for many useful comments, which helped to improve the quality of the paper.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Daniel Altdorff

    Present address: Forschungszentrum Jülich IBG-3, Wilhelm-Johnen-Strasse, 52428, Jülich, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Monitoring- and Exploration Technologies, UFZ Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Daniel Altdorff & Peter Dietrich

  2. Centre of Applied Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Hölderlinstrasse 12, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Peter Dietrich

Authors
  1. Daniel Altdorff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peter Dietrich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Altdorff.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Altdorff, D., Dietrich, P. Delineation of areas with different temporal behavior of soil properties at a landslide affected Alpine hillside using time-lapse electromagnetic data. Environ Earth Sci 72, 1357–1366 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3240-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3240-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation