A PERSPECTIVE FOR ACHIEVING IMPROVED LANDSLIDE MONITORING

Landslide monitoring evokes images of action; installing devices, taking measurements, analyzing data. This action orientation makes it easy to overlook the important first step in landslide monitoring, which is to define the purpose for the monitoring. From my perspective, there are three general purposes for landslide monitoring that I refer to as: phenomena monitoring, investigation monitoring, and performance monitoring.

Phenomena monitoring is done to better understand slope movement occurring in a particular geographic area, as a result of a particular triggering event, or over an extended period of time. Investigation monitoring is the type of monitoring we commonly associate with landslide monitoring. It involves monitoring the movement, crack development, and other physical and temporal aspects of a particular landslide or group of landslides to better understand the dynamics and, usually, to develop some appropriate stabilization or countermeasure. Performance monitoring is an often-overlooked purpose for landslide monitoring. The most obvious performance monitoring is the degree to which stabilization of a landslide achieved its desired effect. In other instances, it may be determining the effectiveness of a particular landslide mitigation measure. Systems to provide warnings in real-time would also be a form of performance monitoring.

Once the purpose of undertaking monitoring is understood, it ensures that appropriate monitoring goals are defined. Without this definition, the monitoring effort may not collect enough information or the right information to achieve its purpose.