A method to assess the probability of thickness and volume estimates of small and shallow initial landslide ruptures based on surface area

A new inventory of 66 small and shallow landslides within six pilot areas was created based on a high-resolution digital elevation model in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. The geometrical characteristics of the landslides were recorded (i.e. surface area, maximum thickness and length), and the volumes were estimated. These data permitted the development of a model that provides the probability for a landslide to possess a maximum thickness or volume smaller than a given value based on the landslide horizontal surface area. The results are compared with three existing power-law relationships of surface area–volumes. This new approach constitutes a way to improve the quantification of the uncertainty of volume and maximum depth estimations for small and shallow landslides.