Frequency and magnitude of selected historical landslide events in the Southern Appalachian Highlands of North Carolina and Virginia: relationships to rainfall, geological and ecohydrological controls and effects

Landsliding is a recurring process in the southern Appalachian Highlands (SAH) region of the Central Hardwood Region. Debris flows, dominant among landslide processes in the SAH, are triggered when rainfall increases pore-water pressures in steep, soil-mantled slopes. Storms that trigger hundreds of debris flows occur about every 9 years and those that generate thousands occur about every 25 years. Rainfall from cyclonic storms triggered hundreds to thousands of debris flows in 1916, 1940, 1969, 1977, 1985, and 2004. Debris flows have caused loss of life and property, and severely affected forest lands by altering forest structure and disrupting aquatic ecosystems. Forests on mountain slopes are critical in mitigating the impacts of recurring landslide events. Forest cover is an important stabilizing factor on hillslopes by intercepting precipitation, increasing evapotranspiration, and reinforcing roots. Precipitation and hillslope-scale landforms have a controlling effect on soil moisture, root strength, and debris flow hazards. Anthropogenic influences have increased the frequency of mass wasting for a given storm event above historical natural levels through changes in vegetation and disturbances on mountain slopes. Climate change that results in increased occurrences of high intensity rainfall through more frequent storms, or higher intensity storms, would also be expected to increase the frequency of debris flows and other forms of mass-wasting in the SAH. The interdisciplinary technical and scientific capacity exists to investigate, analyze, identify and delineate landslide prone areas of the landscape with increasing reliability