Entering the Era of Earth Observation-Based Landslide Warning Systems: A Novel and Exciting Framework

Early warning systems (EWSs) to detect and monitor landslides are a great challenge. They are important due to the high cost of catastrophic landslides and are challenging because of the difficulty in identifying a diverse range of landslide-triggering factors. While there has been a very limited number of successes, recent advances in Earth observation (EO) from the ground, aircraft, and space have dramatically improved our ability to detect and monitor active landslides. A growing body of geotechnical theory suggests that prefailure behavior can offer clues to the location and timing of impending catastrophic failures. In this article, we use two recent landslides in China as case studies to demonstrate that satellite radar observations can be used to detect deformation precursors to catastrophic landslides and that early warnings can be achieved with real-time, in situ observations. We propose a novel and exciting framework that employs EO technologies to build an operational landslide EWS.