An integrated analysis of geophysical data for landslide risk assessment

What is it about?

In May 2014, a severe storm caused substantial damage in the Balkan area by floods and landslides. As a contribution of geophysicists and geotechnical engineers to the effort of prevention of further damage, a Geoscientists without Borders (GwB) project was organised by Association of Geoscientists and Environmentalists of Serbia to assess the potential of further occurrence of landslide in the region supported by SEG and many other organisations, governments and individuals of many countries. Local and international experts conducted field data acquisition with students from four countries.

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Why is it important?

Geophysical surveys with seismic and electric methods were carried out in three phases, June and September 2015 and June 2016, in six locations in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. About 7000m of seismic data are acquired in the sites where landslide potential is considered high. The lesser amount of electric survey was conducted in the same locations. This paper presents some of the results of the geophysical surveys of some of the project areas comparing seismic reflection, MASW and electric resistivity methods, and subsequent assessment of the risk of landslide. This information is used by the engineers of local government in their plan of mitigation of disasters.

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