Coupling field and satellite data for an event-based landslide inventory

Abstract

Following the extreme precipitation and flooding, western and central parts of Serbia suffered massive landsliding at unprecedented rates in mid May 2014. Due to a lack of national landslide inventory and institutional consensus, regarding governmental and scientific stakeholders responsible for landslides, the May 2014 landsliding was not approached systematically until BEWARE project commenced. In the framework of the project, a practical approach for fusing landslide data was implemented for selected pilot areas: Bajina Bašta, Ljubovija and Krupanj. Approach involves field mapping and satellite image analysis across different scales. The innovative part includes techniques for collecting field data, satellite image analysis by means of visual and semi-automated classification across different scales. Landslide inventory of the target areas can be efficiently provided by proposed approach in a relatively short time but with certain expenses, while fusing across scales seems very promising for lowering these expenses for some future event-based landslide mapping campaigns.