Dynamic analysis of landslide hazards in the Three Gorges Reservoir area based on Google Earth Engine

Conventional remote sensing monitoring techniques, constrained by data availability and computational capacity, often fall short of the research requirements of extensive landslide disaster monitoring. This study established a dynamic assessment model for landslide hazards in the Three Gorges Reservoir area based on cloud computing platform Google Earth Engine (GEE), achieving dynamic assessment of landslide hazards in the area under the support of the massive data storage and robust computational capabilities of GEE. First, based on factors such as slope, slope aspect, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized differential water index (NDWI), and geological structures, a landslide susceptibility zone map was established using a weighted gradient boosting decision tree (WGBDT) model. Then, the rainfall threshold inducing landslides in the Three Gorges Reservoir area was determined based on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Subsequently, the rainfall classification criteria and a landslide hazard assessment model were established by combining rainfall and landslide susceptibility. Finally, focusing on the rainfall on August 31 in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, the daily distribution maps of landslide hazards in the Three Gorges Reservoir area were plotted, yielding the spatio-temporal variation trend of landslide hazards. In sum, the data processing and analysis tools of GEE allow for the analysis of landslide-related data of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, thus providing nearly real-time monitoring and early warning information for landslide hazards and offering a basis for the formulation of disaster prevention and mitigation policies.