[go: up one dir, main page]
Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Landslides in the Mailuu-Suu Valley, Kyrgyzstan—Hazards and Impacts

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Landslides Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mailuu-Suu is a former uranium mining area in Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia) at the northern border of the Fergana Basin. This region is particularly prone to landslide hazards and, during the last 50 years, has experienced severe landslide disasters in the vicinity of numerous nuclear waste tailing dams. Due to its critical situation, the Mailuu-Suu region was and still is the target area for several risk assessment projects. This paper provides a brief review of previous studies, past landslide events and a discussion on possible future risk scenarios. Various aspects of landslide hazard and related impacts in the Mailuu-Suu Valley are analyzed in detail: landslide susceptibility, historical evolution of landslide activity, size-frequency relationship, river damming and flooding as well as impacts on inhabited areas and nuclear waste storage zones. The study was carried out with standard remote sensing tools for the processing of satellite imagery and the construction of digital elevation models (DEMs). The processed inputs were combined on a GIS platform with digital landslide distribution maps of 1962, 1977, and 2003, digitized geological and geographic maps, and information from landslide monitoring and geophysical investigation.

As a result, various types of landslide susceptibility maps based on conditional analysis (CA) are presented as well as predictions of future landslide activity and related damming potential and their possible impact on the population. For some risk scenarios, remediation and prevention measures are suggested.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdrakhmatov K, Havenith HB, Delvaux D, Jongmans D, Trefois P (2003) Probabilistic PGA and arias intensity maps of Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia). J Seism 7:203–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Rousan N, Cheng P, Petrie G, Toutin T, Valadan Zoej MJ (1997) Automated DEM extraction and orthoimage Generation from SPOT 1B imagery. Photogram Eng Remote Sens 63(8):965–974

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson PM, Massari R (1998) Generalised linear modelling of susceptibility to landsliding in the Central Apennines, Italy. Compute Geosci 24(4):373–385

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayalew L, Yamagashi H, Ugawa N (2004) Landslide susceptibility mapping using GIS-based weighted linear combination, the case in Tsugawa area of Agano River, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Landslides 1:73–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carrara A, Cardinali M, Guzzetti F, Reichenbach P (1995) GIS technology in mapping landslide hazard. In: Carrara A, Guzzetti F (eds) Geographical information systems in assessing natural hazards. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 135–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Clerici A, Perego S (2000) Simulation of the Parma River blockage by the Corniglio landside (Northern Italy). Geomorphology 33:1–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clerici A, Perego S, Tellini C, Vescovi P (2002) A procedure for landslide susceptibility zonation by the conditional analysis method. Geomorphology 48:349–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ercanoglu M, Gokceoglu C (2002) Assessment of landslide susceptibility for landslide-prone area (north of Yenice, NW Turkey) by fuzzy approach. Environ Geol 41:720–730

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Steeger TM (2002) Erkennung von Hangrutschungssystemen mit Neuralen Netzen als Grundlage für Georisikoanalysen. PhD Thesis, Universität Karlsruhe

  • Gritzner ML, Marcus WA, Aspinall R, Custer SG (2001) Assessing landslide potential using GIS, soil wetness modeling and topographic attributes, Payette River, Idaho. Geomorphology 37:149–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guzzetti F, Carrara A, Cardinali M, Reichenbach P (1999) Landslide hazard evaluation: a review of current techniques and their application in a multi-scale study, Central Italy. Geomorphology 31:181–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Havenith HB, Strom A, Cacerez F, Pirard E (in press) Analysis of landslide susceptibility in the Suusamyr region, Tien Shan: statistical and geotechnical approach. Landslides

  • Khazai B, Sitar N (2000) Assessment of seismic slope stability using GIS modeling. Geog Inform Sci 6(2):121–128

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee S, Ryu JH, Won JS, Park HJ (2004) Determination and application of the weights for landslide susceptibility mapping using an artificial neural network. Eng Geol 71:289–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malamud BD, Turcotte DL, Guzzetti F, Reichenbach P (2004) Landslide inventories and their statistical properties. Earth Surf Process Landf 29:687–711

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roessner S, Wetzel HU, Kaufmann H, Sarnagoev A (2002) Satellite remote sensing for regional assessment of landslide in Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia). In: Forum Katastrophenvorsorge, Deutsches Komitee für Katastrophenvorsorge e.V. (DKKV), pp 433–441

  • Stark CP, Hovius N (2001) The characterization of landslide size distributions. Geophys Res Lett 28:1091–1094

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swanson FJ, Oyagi N, Tominaga M (1986) Landslide dams in Japan. In: Landslide dams: processes, risk and mitigation. Schuster RL (ed) Am Soc Eng Geotech Spec Publ 3, pp 131–145

  • Torgoev IA, Alioshin YG, Havenith HB (2002) Impact of uranium mining and processing on the environment of mountainous areas of Kyrgyzstan. In: Merkel, Planer-Friedrich and Wolkersdorfer (eds) Uranium in the aquatic environment. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 93–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanacker V, Vanderschaeghe M, Govers G, Willems E, Poesen J, Deckers J, De Bievre B (2003) Linking hydrological, infinite slope stability and land-use change models through GIS for assessing the impact of deforestation on slope stability in high Andean watersheds. Geomorphology 52:299–315

    Google Scholar 

  • Vandenhove H, Quarch H, Clerc J, Lejeune J, Sweeck L, Sillen X, Mallants D, Zeevaert T (2003) Remediation of uranium mining and milling tailing in Mailuu-Suu district of Kyrgyzstan. Tacis Project N° SCRE1/N°38 Report

Download references

Acknowledgement

The research leading to this article was funded by the NATO Collaborative Linkage Grant for the project Risk related to earthquakes, landslides and spreading of radioactive waste tailings in Mailuu-Suu (Kyrgyzstan). Hans-Balder Havenith thanks the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique of Belgium for the 5-years' financial support of his research at the University of Liege, Belgium, on landslide risk in Kyrgyzstan. We also acknowledge Oliver Korup from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research for pre-reviewing and constructive comments on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Seismological Service, Institute of Geophysics, ETH-Hönggerberg, 8093, Zürich, Switzerland

    H. B. Havenith

  2. Scientific Engineering Center “GEOPRIBOR”, 98 Mederova St., 720035, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic

    I. Torgoev, Y. Alioshin & A. Torgoev

  3. Ministry of the Ecology and Emergency of Kyrgyz Republic, 2/1 Toktonalieva St., Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic

    A. Meleshko

  4. Département GeomaC, University of Liege, B52/3, Sart Tilman B52, 4000, Liège, Belgium

    G. Danneels

Authors
  1. H. B. Havenith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. I. Torgoev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. Meleshko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Y. Alioshin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. A. Torgoev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. G. Danneels
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. B. Havenith.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Havenith, H.B., Torgoev, I., Meleshko, A. et al. Landslides in the Mailuu-Suu Valley, Kyrgyzstan—Hazards and Impacts. Landslides 3, 137–147 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-006-0035-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-006-0035-2

Keywords