Options
Liquefaction susceptibility assessment in fluvial plains using airborne lidar: the case of the 2012 Emilia earthquake sequence area (Italy)
Author(s)
Language
English
Obiettivo Specifico
1T. Deformazione crostale attiva
4T. Sismologia, geofisica e geologia per l'ingegneria sismica
Status
Published
JCR Journal
JCR Journal
Title of the book
Issue/vol(year)
/15(2015)
Pages (printed)
2473–2483
Issued date
2015
Subjects
Keywords
Abstract
We report a case study from the Po River plain region
(northern Italy), where significant liquefaction-related
land and property damage occurred during the 2012 Emilia
seismic sequence.We took advantage of a 1m pixel lidar digital
terrain model (DTM) and of the 2012 Emilia coseismic
liquefaction data set to (a) perform a detailed geomorphological
study of the Po River plain area and (b) quantitatively
define the liquefaction susceptibility of the geomorphologic
features that experienced different abundance of liquefaction.
One main finding is that linear topographic highs of fluvial
origin – together with crevasse splays, abandoned riverbeds
and very young land reclamation areas – acted as a preferential
location for the occurrence of liquefaction phenomena.
Moreover, we quantitatively defined a hierarchy in terms
of liquefaction susceptibility for an ideal fluvial environment.
We observed that a very high liquefaction susceptibility
is found in coincidence with fluvial landforms, a high-tomoderate
liquefaction susceptibility within a buffer distance
of 100 and 200m from mapped fluvial landforms and a low
liquefaction susceptibility outside fluvial landforms and relative
buffer areas. Lidar data allowed a significant improvement
in mapping with respect to conventionally available topographic
data and/or aerial imagery. These results have significant
implications for accurate hazard and risk assessment
as well as for land-use planning. We propose a simple geomorphological
approach for liquefaction susceptibility estimation.
Our findings can be applied to areas beyond Emilia
that are characterized by similar fluvial-dominated environments
and prone to significant seismic hazard.
(northern Italy), where significant liquefaction-related
land and property damage occurred during the 2012 Emilia
seismic sequence.We took advantage of a 1m pixel lidar digital
terrain model (DTM) and of the 2012 Emilia coseismic
liquefaction data set to (a) perform a detailed geomorphological
study of the Po River plain area and (b) quantitatively
define the liquefaction susceptibility of the geomorphologic
features that experienced different abundance of liquefaction.
One main finding is that linear topographic highs of fluvial
origin – together with crevasse splays, abandoned riverbeds
and very young land reclamation areas – acted as a preferential
location for the occurrence of liquefaction phenomena.
Moreover, we quantitatively defined a hierarchy in terms
of liquefaction susceptibility for an ideal fluvial environment.
We observed that a very high liquefaction susceptibility
is found in coincidence with fluvial landforms, a high-tomoderate
liquefaction susceptibility within a buffer distance
of 100 and 200m from mapped fluvial landforms and a low
liquefaction susceptibility outside fluvial landforms and relative
buffer areas. Lidar data allowed a significant improvement
in mapping with respect to conventionally available topographic
data and/or aerial imagery. These results have significant
implications for accurate hazard and risk assessment
as well as for land-use planning. We propose a simple geomorphological
approach for liquefaction susceptibility estimation.
Our findings can be applied to areas beyond Emilia
that are characterized by similar fluvial-dominated environments
and prone to significant seismic hazard.
Type
article
File(s)
Loading...
Name
nhess-15-2473-2015.pdf
Size
8.76 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
502305b8beecc03f5c68aaf49e234869