Landslide Topology Uncovers Failure Movements

Eery year, landslides cause economic damages worth 20 billion US dollars [1], and between 2004 and 2019 non-seismic landslides alone caused about 70, 000 fatalities worldwide [2]. Within the first two months of 2023, we have seen reports of devastating landslides in São Paulo, Brazil [3], Southern Peru [4], and New Zealand [5], injuring many and killing approximately 70 people. Adding to this, recent studies count over one million landslide occurrences with annual volumes estimated at fifty-six billion cubic meters globally [6], presenting a risk to sixty million people [7]. With the increase in urbanization, global climate change, and environmental change trends, the frequency of landslides and the associated risks will keep increasing globally over time [7]. In line with this, landslides are anticipated to evolve and remobilize with increased frequency under changing climatic conditions on a decadal scale [8, 9]. Our ability to identify hazards from emerging landslides and dynamically assess impact areas is essential in averting risk to rapidly urbanizing communities and adapting to changing environmental conditions [10, 7]. To address the rising landslide risk, predictive models for hazard, risk, and early warning systems are developed which assist in forecasting landslide occurrences and locating landslide-prone regions to mitigate the associated impacts [11]. However, the efficacy of these models is contingent on the quality of the underlying landslide databases.