Recent landslide disasters in China and lessons learned for landslide risk management

Present data showed that for all types of the fatal landslides between 2001 and 2004 in China, small size landslides with volume less than 104m3 were the most frequent, medium size landslides with volume of between 104 and 106m3 were much less common, whereas the large and giant landslides, with volume greater than 106m3, were the most infrequent (Fig. 5). Only two giant fatal landslides moved in form of slide in 2003 and 2004, respectively, and few debris flows and regional landslides were large than 106m3. In addition, 80% of the fatal slides were shallower than 3 m, only 3% of the slides were deeper than 10 m (Fig. 6). Moreover, it was noted that all the deep-seated fatal landslides (deeper than 10 m) were larger than 2 105m3.