Landslides can be very devastating and in the past, we have heard countless stories of how homes and lives have been lost because of landslides. Most of the time it’s hard to say when they will happen, but that’s something that researchers at a bunch of different universities are hoping to address.The team consists of researchers from Newcastle University, Chengdu University of Technology, Tongji University, China Academy of Space Technology, and Wuhan University, and it seems that they are considering the idea of using satellites to predict when landslides will happen. This is thanks to the team tracking recent landslides that occurred at the Xinmo Village in Maoxian County in the Sichuan Province of China.
Using images that were taken by ESA’s Sentinel-1 satellite, the team was able to look at the before and after images of the region and map the landslide, identify its source, and also the extent of the damage. According to Professor Zehnghong Li of Newcastle University, “In fact, while we were monitoring the Maoxian landslides we managed to identify over 10 other active landslides in the same region and forwarded this information to the relevant agencies.”
This method appears to be particularly effective as the team managed to identify land had been sliding for about 6 months before the events took place last week, which means that this method could be used as an early warning system which could lead to prevention and also lives being saved.
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