Landslides and rainfall characteristics analysis in Taipei City during the Typhoon Nari event

The severe Typhoon Nari ended on September 15, 2001 with a high-intensity and high-accumulation storm that dumped up to 1249 mm of rain in Taipei City, Taiwan. The high-intensity and high-accumulation event caused flooding and triggered more than 400 soils slips and debris flows and large, complex landslides. Detailed information on 63 events, including rainfall, initiation time, and magnitude of landslides were documented and analyzed to identify the landslides and rainfall characteristic in Taipei City during Typhoon Nari. The result reveals that slump, slide, and debris flow events are associated with the situation of high-intensity or high-accumulation rainfall. The rainfall intensity-duration condition resulted in smaller magnitude and shallow failures. Medium to massive landslide were mainly related to the high-accumulation rainfall. A landslide regionalization process based on rainfall, geomorphologic and geologic characteristics is proposed. Results of the proposed process show good agreement with landslide events observed in the Taipei City during Typhoon Nari.