Procedia Engineering

Volume 143, 2016, Pages 708–716

Advances in Transportation Geotechnics 3 . The 3rd

International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics
(ICTG 2016)

Using Remote Sensing Techniques to Identify the

Landslide Hazard Prone Sections along the South Link
Railway in Taiwan
Chih-Hao Hsu1*, Ting-Chi Tsao1†, Chuen-Ming Huang1, Ching-Fang Lee1
and Yi-The Lee2
1
Disaster Prevention Technology Research Center, Sinotech Engineering Consultants, INC.,
Taipei, Taiwan.
2
Geotechnical Engineering Department, Sinotech Engineering Consultants, LTD., Taipei, Taiwan
ansonhsu@sinotech.org.tw

Abstract
In this study, we demonstrate the capability of combining remote sensing and GIS technique to
identify and map out the possible landslide and debris flow hazards along the South Link Railway in
Taiwan. Using high resolution aerial photography, terrain models, landslide inventories, the disaster
prone areas of 3 types of mass movements were identified. In total, 48 slopes hold high landslide
susceptibility; 35 torrents have high debris flow susceptibility; the rockfall from 11 sites would reach
the railway line. The result shows consistencies with hazard records and could provide vital
information for railway line improvement, hazard prevention and mitigation purposes.

Keywords: Remote Sensing, South Link Railway, Taiwan, Landslide, Rockfall, Debris Flow

1 Introduction
Taiwan is located in the region with earthquakes and typhoons occurring frequently. From the
statistics of the Central Weather Bureau, over the past 50 years there were 4.9 typhoons hitting Taiwan
annually (Lo, W. C., Tsao, T. C., and Hsu, C. H., 2012) (Chen, Y. R., Yeh, C. H., and Yu, B., 2011).
Moreover, the hill slopes and high precipitation also provide good conditions for landslide hazards
(Tsao, T. C., Hsu, C. H., Lee, C. F., Huang, C. M., Wei, L. W., and Lee E. T., 2014). According to UN
statistics, Taiwan is among the highest absolute GDP (Gross Domestic Product) (140 billion USD), as
well as the highest relative GDP (33%) exposure due to precipitation or earthquake triggered
landslides (UNISDR., 2009).

*
Masterminded EasyChair and created the first stable version of this document
†
Created the first draft of this document

708 Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Programme Committee of ICTG 2016
c The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.06.107
Using Remote Sensing Techniques to Identify the Landslide Hazard ... Hsu et al.

Additionally, with land development, tourism and other human activity moving into the mountains,
more and more elements at risk were exposed to debris flow hazard (Hsu, C. H., Tsao, T. C., Chang, Y.
L., and Chen, C. Y., 2012). Several critical infrastructure such as highway, railway were exposed to
landslide hazard (Lee, C. F., Huang, W. K., Wei, L. W., Tsao, T. C., Chang, Y. L., and Chi, S. Y.,
2015). Thus, it is worth noting that landslide hazard had been one of the major natural hazards in
Taiwan because of tremendous economic loss and casualties.

2 Study Area
The length of the South Link Railway is roughly 98 km from Fangliao Township in the west to
Taitung City in the east (Figure 1). During the route selection stage during 1980s, a relatively high risk
route was selected because of budget limitation, thus the railway line was exposed to landslide and
debris flow hazards (South Link Railway Construction Office, 1992). The railway line passes through
the southern foots of the Central Range in Taiwan and goes along with various landforms and
geological zones (Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, 2008).
The South Link Railway could be divided into several sections based on construction type:
embankment and bridge (8.8 km), tunnel (38.9 km), and slope-land sections. According to the disaster
records form Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA, 2015), several shallow landslides, rockfall and
debris flow events impacted the railway in the past decade (Table 1). On Aug. 31, 2013, Tze-Chiang
Limited Express was derailed (Figure 2) because of hitting the debris flow (China Times Inc., 2013).
Thus, it highlighted the importance of safety of the South Link Railway.

Date Event
2004/9/15 Typhoon HAIMA
2005/7/19 Typhoon HAITANG
2012/6/14 0614 Rainfall
2012/6/15 0614 Rainfall
2013/8/13 0831 Rainfall
Table 1: Hazard events of the South Link Railway in the past decade

Figure 1: The South Link Railway

Figure 2: Disaster image on Aug. 31, 2013 (China Times Inc.,
2013)

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3 Methodology
The railway service had to be suspended when flood or debris covering the rail. To prevent the
interruption of the railway services due to natural hazards, scientists, engineers, and railway
companies had been working on the prevention and mitigation of the landslide hazards along the
railway line. Due to the vast range and wide area of interest, remote sensing, aerial photography
interpretation, terrain analysis, and numerical simulations were the most common tools (Watanabe, S.,
Sugiyama, T., Nunokawa, O., Fujii, T., Okada, K. , Mitsunaka, H., 2006) (Lan, H. X., Martin, C. D.,
and Zhou, C. H., 2008) (Bednarik, M., MagulovǢ, B., Matys, M., and Marschalko, M., 2010) (Rachoy,
C., Henle, A., Waclavicek, T., Prasicek, G., Scheikl, M., and Wergles, N., 2010) (Chan, H. C., Chang,
C. C., and Hung, Y. J., 2012) (Chen, S.-C., Chang, C.-C., Chan, H.-C., Huang, L.-M., and Lin, L.-L.,
2013) (Salvini, R., Francioni, M., Riccucci, S., Bonciani, F., and Callegari, I., 2013). In this study,
three types of mass movements are discussed: shallow landslide, rockfall, and debris flow.

3.1 Shallow Landslide

Landslide Susceptibility (LS) is defined as the likelihood of a landslide occurring in an area on the
basis of local terrain and hydrological conditions. LS zonation refers to the division of the land to
homogeneous areas or domains according to the degree of actual or potential hazard (Varnes, 1984).
This study adopts the logistic regression method of multivariate analysis to conduct landslide
susceptibility analysis.
Figure 3 (Xie, M., Esaki, T., and Zhou, G., 2004) shows the workflow of the landslide
susceptibility analysis method adopted. The landslide spatial distribution is determined by comparing
satellite images before and after typhoon/rainfall events, and was recognized to be the event-based
landslide inventory (Cheng, C. T., Huang, C. M., Wei, L. W., Lee, C. F., and Lee, C. T., 2013). In
regional scale shallow landslide susceptibility analysis, the landslide inventory, rainfall data of the
event, DEM and geological data were used to build the analysis model and calculate the susceptibility
index of each 5m*5m grid. The susceptibility indexes can be transformed into the landslide spatial
probabilities. Slope unit (Figure 4) is helpful in slope hazard management so it is used as the analysis
unit. In this study, 146 slope units were mapped along the South Link Railway (excluding the tunnel
section). By calculating and ranking the probability of each slope unit, the high susceptibility slope
units can be identified.

Figure 3ĻġWorkflow of landslide susceptibility analysis method (Xie, M., Esaki, T., and Zhou, G., 2004)

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Using Remote Sensing Techniques to Identify the Landslide Hazard ... Hsu et al.

3.2 Rockfall
Rockfall propagation
areas can be determined
using a simple geometric
rule known as shadow
angle or energy line
method (Jaboyedoff, M.,
and Labiouse, V., 2011).
And a fast estimation of
the potential of rockfall
prone areas can be
obtained (Corominas, 1996)
(Jaboyedoff, M. and Figure 4ĻġGrid units and slope units (Xie, M., Esaki, T., and Zhou, G., 2004)
Labiouse, V., 2003)
(Dorren, 2003).
The rockfall data from the Central Geological Survey of Taiwan were adopted to understand the
locations of high susceptibility sites. There are 11 sites with high rockfall susceptibility and 21 sites
with medium susceptibility along the South Link Railway (excluding the tunnel section). The
empirical methods to analyze the rockfall run-out zone includes energy line and shadow angle energy
line (Jaboyedoff, M., and Labiouse, V., 2011). Energy line means the angle between the top and any
specific point. It ranges from 22 degrees to 37degrees (Figure 5). Shadow angle energy line means the
angle between the top of collapsed material and any specific point. Because the top of collapsed
material is unavailable in this study, the energy line method was adopted. After the analysis, out of the
11 high rockfall susceptibility sites, only 3 sites might have the energy to reach the South Link
Railway, and out of 21 medium susceptibility sites, 8 have the potential to reach the South Link
Railway. The distribution of these high or medium susceptibility sites also shows a high correlation
with the metamorphic geology conditions and steep topography over the Seashore Mountain Range.
After identifying the high and medium susceptibility sites, the RAMMS (RApid Mass Movement
System) model was applied to simulate the rockfall trajectory. RAMMS has been developed by a team
of experts at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and the Swiss Federal Institute
for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. The RAMMS Rockfall model is a three dimensional
rigid-body rockfall trajectory model (Leine, R., Schweizer, A., Christen, M., Glover, J., Bartelt, P.,
and Gerber, W., 2014), and it can be used to identify the rockfall prone areas (Leine, R., Schweizer, A.,
Christen, M., Glover, J., Bartelt, P., and Gerber, W., 2014) (Christen, M., Bǽhler, Y., Bartelt, P., Leine,
R., Glover, J., Schweizer, A., Graf, C., McArdell, B. W., Gerber, W., Deubelbeiss, Y., Feistl, T., and
Volkwein, A., 2012). In this study, the assumption of a rockfall with a size of 8 m3 (2 m*2 m*2 m)
was made to simulate the consequences, and the
possible affected area based on rockfall trajectory
was then mapped (Figure 6).

Figure 5ĻġEmpirical models of rockfall (Jaboyedoff, M.,

Figure 6: Diagram of simulation result
and Labiouse, V., 2011)

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3.3 Debris Flow

After the Chi-Chi earthquake in 1999, lots of debris flow events occurred and the researches about
debris flow mechanism or management are various in Taiwan (Chou, H. T., Liao, W. M., and Yao, S.
W., 2001) (Yu, F. C., Chen, T. C., Lin, M. L., Chen, C. Y., and Yu, W. H., 2006) (Chen, S. C., and
Wu, C. Y., 2014). As of 2015, there were 1,673 potential debris flow torrents enlisted around Taiwan
and monitored by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB, 2015). However, the SWCB only
focused on the torrents where resident buildings are nearby. Therefore, the torrents around the South
Link Railway were neglected. The awareness of railway safety due to debris flow actually did not
surface until the derailed event on Aug. 31, 2013.
In this study, a simple approach to estimate the cross sections blockage of torrents is used. First,
DEM data and ArcGIS software were used to map out the torrents and their watersheds automatically.
Totally there were 164 torrents around the railway (excluding the tunnel section) and their
susceptibility was classified according to sediment sources within the watershed. The classification
rules are shown as follows:
1. High susceptibility: With landslide inventory within the watersheds of the torrent, or with
historical record of debris flow.
2. Medium susceptibility: With sediment movement or bank scour phenomenon under aerial
photography interpretation.
3. Low susceptibility: None of above phenomena was observed in the watershed.
Classified by the rules, 35 torrents with high susceptibility, 18 with medium, and 111 torrents with
low susceptibility were mapped out. This study focuses on evaluating the 35 high susceptibility
torrents, which have the landslide inventories and debris flow history. In order to comprehend the
blockage potential, some basic steps were chosen to calculate the parameters of debris flow and peak
discharge of debris flow (Takahashi, 2009) (Tsai, Y. F., Tsai, H. K., and Cheng, Y. L., 2011) (Lai, C.
N., Chung, P. J., Ku, B. H., Chang, Y. L., and Chi, S. Y., 2012). Also, according to the Soil and Water
Conservation Manual (SWCB, 2005) in Taiwan, the following equations are requested to evaluate the
volume of debris flow.
ଵ
ܳ௣ ൌ ଷ଺଴ ‫ܣܫܥ‬ (1)

 ୮ : Peak Discharge (݉ଷ Τ‫ܥ ;) ܿ݁ݏ‬: Runoff Coefficient; ‫ܫ‬: Rainfall Intensity (݉݉Τ݄‫ܣ ;)ݎ‬: Drainage
Area (݄ܽ).
ஓಡ ୲ୟ୬ ஘
ୈ ൌ ሺஓ (2)
౩ ିஓಡ ሻሺ୲ୟ୬ ‫୲ି׎‬ୟ୬ ஘ሻ

‫ܥ‬஽ : Volume Concentration of Debris Flow; ߛఠ : Water density (݇݃Τ݉ଷ ); ߠ: Bed Slop (†‡‰”‡‡•); ߛ௦ :
Specific Gravity of Gravel (݇݃Τ݉ଷ ); ‫׎‬: Internal Friction Angle of Debris (†‡‰”‡‡•).
஼‫כ‬
ܳ஽ ൌ ܳ௣ (3)
஼‫ି כ‬஼ವ

 ୈ : Debris Flow Discharge (݉ଷ Τ‫ כܥ ;) ܿ݁ݏ‬: Sediment Volume

ConcentrationǤ

For the need of estimating the capacity of each cross

section of torrents, field investigation is necessary to measure
each cross section (Figure 7). If the debris flow discharge is
higher than the capacity of cross section, it is estimated that the
cross section would be blocked by the debris, leading to the
overflow. Figure 7ĻġImage of field investigation

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Using Remote Sensing Techniques to Identify the Landslide Hazard ... Hsu et al.

4 Results
By following the workflow
(Figure 3), the susceptibility of
slope units can be derived. The
slope units are grouped into three
classes which are with almost
equal amounts. There are 49
slope units with low
susceptibility, 49 with medium
susceptibility and 48 with high
susceptibility. By overlaying the
terrain data, South Link Railway
and the susceptibility slope units
(Figure 8), it shows that most of
the high susceptibility slope
units distributes over the Central Figure 8: Shallow landslide susceptibility
Range.
Through the simulation of rockfall by RAMMS, the scenario of each rockfall site can be obtained.
By mapping the simulated results (Figure 9), the section lengths which probably will be affected by
rockfall were calculated (Table 2).
After comparing the peak discharge of debris No. Length (m) No. Length (m)
flow and capacity of the cross section, the torrents 1 126 7 137
with blockage potential were identified. One out of 2 52 8 210
the 35 torrents has the blockage risk and 6 out of 3 57 9 33
the 35 torrents which just run into the gutters at the 4 29 10 344
side of the railway may overflow the railway 5 94 11 32
straight (Figure 10). The rest have the capacity for ͸ 164
designated debris flow volume. Table 2: Length of each rockfall prone section

Figure 9: Rockfall prone sections

Figure 10: Debris flow prone sections

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Using Remote Sensing Techniques to Identify the Landslide Hazard ... Hsu et al.

5 Conclusions
In this study, three types of mass movements were considered to map out the sediment disaster
prone sections. In conclusion, 48 shallow landslide prone sections, 11 rockfall prone sections, and 7
debris flow prone sections were identified along the South Link Railway. The shallow landslide prone
sections mainly distribute over the Central Range, and the rockfall prone sections mainly at the
Seashore Mountain Range. The results are highly consistent with the distribution of disaster records
form Taiwan Railways Administration.
The landslide hazard information and prone sections could be mapped through the approach
proposed in this study. The results could help the construction improvement, disaster prevention and
management of the railway services in this part of Taiwan.

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