Evaluating effects of topographies on explicit hydromechanical solvers using procedural generation

A key problem for landslide research is evaluating hydromechanical solvers on a suitable variety of terrain types. There currently exists a large gulf between studies using hydromechanical solvers on highly idealised terrain, and those on real topographies. This makes it difficult to properly evaluate (i) the sensitivity of the output from the solver to specific terrain features, and (ii) potential numerical artifacts. One way to bridge the gap is to use procedural generation -- which has been used extensively in the videogame and animation industries for three decades -- to generate hillsides with controlled properties. Indeed, the size and frequency of topographical features can be set using procedural generation algorithms, so the spatial distribution of topographical features can be varied in isolation. This study uses a depth-averaged SPH solver to model single-surge flows on a variety of procedurally generated terrains. We investigate the effects of the spatial distribution and magnitude of features on the deposition patterns from the flows. We also discuss other potential applications for these approaches, including hazard mapping for cases where topographical uncertainty is likely (e.g. for modelling snow avalanches).