The Index of Potential Trigger (IPT): An Automated Morphometric Tool for Classifying Landslide Triggers

Catalogues of landslides show that many slopes in mountainous regions have experienced extensive failures over time, yet their origin remains poorly constrained. This knowledge gap limits our ability to assess present‑day slope hazard levels and to incorporate prehistoric failures into engineering‑geological models used for risk mitigation.

This study builds upon the work of Baroň et al. (2024), who investigated the triggering mechanisms of large landslides, with a focus on distinguishing seismic‑induced failures from those initiated by intense rainfall. We present a newly developed automated morphometric tool for calculating the Index of Potential Trigger (IPT), designed to classify landslides using two input datasets: a digital elevation model (DEM) and a polygonal landslide inventory.

The results show that the automated IPT method closely reproduces the manual classifications reported by Baroň et al. (2024), with a clear distinction between rainfall- and earthquake-triggered landslides. The automated IPT provides a reproducible, low‑cost tool for regional‑scale investigations, supporting more efficient use of resources in landslide risk reduction. By integrating morphometric analysis with established engineering-geological knowledge, the approach contributes to bridging the gap between scientific advances in landslide process understanding and practical tools for engineering geology and risk mitigation.