The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
It is widely reported that the Chinese province of Guangdong is suffering a period of extreme rainfall, driving widespread flooding. Thousands of people have been evacuated and there is widespread damage.
Less well reported is that these rains have also triggered many landslides. Particularly affected appears to be Jiangwan, a town located in the the Shaoguan City region. As is common in China, information is far from clear, but there are some images that suggest that the impacts might be severe.
For example, Tnews365 tweeted this image of one of the landslide at Jiangwan:-
Xinhua, the state Chinese news agency, posted some images that include a couple from Jiangwan – it seems likely that this is the same landslide.
The reports indicate that four people have been killed and ten are missing, although the linkage to this specific event is unclear. But note the damaged buildings in the image above – it would be surprising if there were no fatalities from this landslide.
Particularly interesting though are a couple of images that have been published on Chinese language websites. Take a look at a news report on Southcn.com, which includes this wider perspective view of Jiangwan:-
This image shows at least 30 major landslides. Note that they are mostly shallow landslides that have started at or close to the ridge or to a break of slope. Interestingly, many have been triggered on forested slopes. These failures are quite wide in many cases. Other sites have similar images.
Hopefully as the weather starts to clear, satellite imagery will become available showing these landslides. Meanwhile, Hong Kong issued a rainfall warning today, although no landslip warning followed. This was the fourth such warning in a week. Some areas of Hong Kong received over 100 mm in 24 hours.
Further rainfall is forecast for the area in the coming days.