Implementation of hydrometeorological thresholds for regional landslide warning in Catalonia (NE Spain)

Abstract Soil moisture plays a vital role in slope stability. As water infiltrates into the soil, shear strength decreases eventually leading to failure. However, most of existing regional-scale landslide early warning systems (LEWS) rely solely on rainfall information and use thresholds determine if triggering conditions are met. The original version Catalonia region LEWS combines real-time observations susceptibility compute warnings. applies set intensity-duration have potential trigger landslide. This work explores using modelled soil data LEWS. Volumetric content (VWC) from LISFLOOD hydrological simulations European Flood Awareness System estimates been analysed at location recent events. Based this data, empirical hydrometeorological combining has obtained for their application run nine months (April–December 2020) two approaches: (i) (I-D) (ii) new including information. Generally, both approaches issued moderate or high warnings areas where significant accumulations were recorded. outputs compared specific locations landslides reported during period. Results show that false positives generally reduced when employing Therefore, approach is promising could help improve regional scale Catalonia.