The Landslides under Influence of Climate Change in China

As one of the most landslide-prone countries, China also stands out as the most affected countries by climate change worldwide. Understanding the influences of climate change on landslide is a great issue for optimizing the corresponding countermeasures for landslide risk control. In this study, an overview of climate change's influences on landslide in China was investigated, and the developing trends of landslides in various natural topographical regions were analyzed based on two decades of historical recordings. The regions and major categories of landslide that are potentially influenced by climate change are summarized. The results indicate a growing trend of climate change in affecting the geo-environment, leading to the corresponding increase in severity, complexity, and spatial-temporal uncertainties of landslide in China. Accordingly, a more proactive response is warranted to establish a more dynamic, efficient, and integrated framework of landslide risk control. This framework should encompass the entire risk control process from landslide identification, risk assessment, monitoring, early warning and mitigation, to address the issues of "What-Where-When-Why" landslide would occur, "Who" might be the vulnerable elements, and "How" the mitigation should be performed scientifically. This study is expected to help better understand the influences of climate changes on landslide in China, and highlight the countermeasures responding to the challenges from both administrative and scientific research perspectives.

Figure1. the general trend of landslide change under the influence of climate change

Figure2. The typical categories of landslide in China that could be influenced by climate change