Successful implementations of a real-time and intelligent early warning system for loess landslides on the Heifangtai terrace, China

Real-time monitoring and intelligent early warning system are crucial and significant to take mitigation measures and reduce casualties and property losses related to landslides. It is difficult to obtain entire monitoring data in the accelerated deformation phase in a landslide event, and hard to issue early warning information using a traditional monitoring approach with fixed and low sampling frequency. Displacement increments of loess landslides induced by agriculture irrigation on the Heifangtai terrace could be sudden and extremely rapid. Typical landslide types include loess flowslides and loess falls. It is of practical significance to develop a self-adaptive data acquisition monitoring technique and establish a real-time landslide early warning system (LEWS) to meet the needs for risk mitigation of rapid sliding slopes on the Heifangtai terrace. The monitoring technique can wirelessly transmit displacement data and the LEWS was devised using the new artificial intelligence. The LEWS could automatically release the warning information in advance of the event once the early warning parameters exceed default thresholds. In this study, the early warning procedures, real-time monitoring approach, intelligent LEWS, a multiple criteria warning model, warning release and emergency mitigation measures, and performance are introduced in detail. Six loess landslides at Heifangtai and eight landslides in other regions of China have been successfully warned since its implementation in 2012. This study proposed an effective and practical solution for the early warning of loess landslides at Heifangtai. Two typical loess landslides that had successful early warnings at Heifangtai were presented. The successful implementation could serve as a reference for global rapid slope failure cases, considering the complex nature of landslide behaviors and failure mechanisms. •A self-adaptive data acquisition technique was successfully developed to monitor sudden failure of loess landslides.•3D WebGIS-based platform developed by SKLGP becomes more intelligent and accurate.•Multiple alert criteria model including deformation rate, the rate increment, and tangential angle, is established.•The LEWS with multiple alert criteria model has successfully forecasted six loess landslides since its implementation in 2017.