MassWastingRouter: A watershed-scale sediment production (landslides!) and transport model

In the same way that watersheds filter precipitation signals into a time series of flow, watersheds also filter landslide signals into a time series of sediment transport. MassWastingRouter is a new watershed-scale sediment production and transport model being written for the python package Landlab that couples an existing, hydrology-driven, shallow landslide probability model (LandslideProbability) with an existing network-scale bedload transport model (NetworkSedimentTransporter) by (1) delineating hillslope-scale landslides from maps of landslide probability (LandslideMapper), (2) routing the landslides through the watershed using a “precipiton” or “agent” style debris flow model (MassWastingRunout) and (3) fluvially eroding the mass wasting deposits and inserting them into the channel network. Comparisons with field observed debris flows show that despite the highly-simplified nature of the debris flow model, it can accurately replicate observed depositional and scour behavior in complex terrain and preliminary model runs with MassWastingRouter reveal that valley storage processes modulate the rate that mass wasting material exits the basin outlet as bedload.

Keck (2022) MassWastingRouter: A watershed-scale sediment production (landslides!) and transport model. USGS Landslide Hazards Seminar, 15 June 2022.