Dynamic Process, Influence, and Triggering Mechanism of Slope Remodeling by Landslide Clusters in the South Jingyang Tableland, China

Recently, the concept of landslide path dependence has been proposed and well confirmed in landslide studies in central Italy and the Nepal Himalaya, providing a novel perspective for understanding landslide activity patterns and assessing susceptibility. Previous studies have shown that landslides in some loess tableland regions of China have obvious clustering effect, but whether landslides in these regions also have path dependence have not been well discussed. From the perspective of landslide path dependence, multidisciplinary survey methods (including remote sensing, satellite interpreting and monitoring, geographic information system mapping, terrestrial laser scanner survey, electrical resistivity tomography survey, remote online monitoring, physical experiments, numerical simulations, mathematical statistical analysis, and geomorphic change detection, etc.) were jointly applied in the study of landslide clusters in the South Jingyang Tableland, Shaanxi Province, China. We reveal the temporal-spatial distribution and deformation law of landslide clusters in the study area, analyze the effect of consecutive landsliding on the geomorphic evolution of the loess tableland and its triggering mechanism, and find the evidence of the existence of landslide path dependence in loess environment. The results show that the rise of groundwater level caused by human activities is the main culprit for the landslide clusters formation in the study area. Different path dependent models (reactivation or continuation landsliding, local activation landsliding, and remote activation landsliding) repeatedly acted alone or interacted with each other, leading to the formation of large-scale landslide clusters, and continuously remodeled the landscape of the loess tableland, thus accelerating the evolution process of the loess tableland. This study provides a scientific basis for further understanding the distribution law, sliding mode, cluster effect and formation mechanism of landslide in loess tableland. This study provides a scientific basis for further understanding the distribution law, sliding mode, clustering effect and formation mechanism of landslide clusters in loess tableland.