Assessments of landslide hazards in Fengdu County, Chongqing City, Three Gorges reservoir region of the Yangtze River, China

On the basis of investigation and statistic analysis of landslide hazards in Fengdu County in the reservoir region of the Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River,the distribution characteristics and main influence factors of landslide hazards are outlined.Then the risk of landslides in Fengdu is assessed using an integrated information model.According to the landslide risk,the county is divided into the high-risk(destructive),medium-risk(disastrous),low-risk(likely disastrous)and essentially safe(non-disastrous)areas.The high-and medium-risk areas account for 2.6% and 23.2% of the area of the whole county respectively and are mainly distributed in townships and highways along south bank of the Yangtze River and residential quarters along two flanks of the Yangtze River and its distributaries,where landslide hazards of different scales occur frequently and thus the potential risk is great.The low-risk areas make up 47.5% of the total area of the whole county,where small landslides and rock falls occur occasionally.The essentially safe areas take up ～25.5% of the region,where,induced by artificial factors,small landslide hazards may happen occasionally,so these areas are suited to construction of large-sized engineering works and residential areas of townships.