CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Blais Stevens, A.; Lipovsky, P.; Couture, R.; Kremer, M.; and Page, A.
Date : 2011.
Title : Landslide inventory and preliminary susceptibility mapping for a proposed pipeline route along the Yukon Alaska Highway corridor, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Publication : Putting Science into Practice. The Second World Landslide Forum. October 3-9, 2011. FAO Headquaters, Rome, Italy.
Issue : Abstract Book.
Page(s) : 362.
Abstract
In Canada’s north, slope stability is a critical issue along infrastructure. Slope failures such as rockfalls, rock slides, and debris flows are common in mountainous regions. In addition, there are several types of landslides and ground hazard features that are directly related to the presence of discontinuous permafrost including thin layer detachment slides, retrogressive thaw flows, solifluction, thermokarst depressions, and rock glaciers. Natural Resources Canada, in collaboration with the Yukon Geological Survey, has compiled a landslide inventory and carried out a preliminary landslide susceptibility assessment of debris flows and rockfalls and rock slides within the Yukon Alaska Highway Corridor (YAHC). The YAHC is 950 km long, 40 km wide, and 36,000 km2 in area and includes a proposed pipeline route. A total of 1612 landslides were identified from air-photos, which represents about 1 landslide per 12 km2. The prominent landslide types included debris slides (31%), debris flows and fans (28%), rock slides (11%), solifluction (8%), earth slides/flows (5%), karstic depressions (5%), rockfalls (4%), and combined retrogressive thaw flows and active layer detachments (1%). Rock glaciers were also identified (6%). A landslide distribution map shows that 64 % of the dominant landslide activity occurs in unconsolidated sediments. A qualitative heuristic debris flow susceptibility map indicates that 69% of the mapped debris flow deposits occurred downslope from a high susceptibility zone and 28% downslope from the medium to high susceptibility zone. For the qualitative heuristic rockfall/rock slide susceptibility map, 64% fall within the high susceptibility zone and 20% within the medium-high susceptibility zone. The good correlation between the modeled susceptibility maps and actual landslide inventory demonstrates the effectiveness of preliminary qualitative landslide susceptibility mapping.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology