Characterisation and monitoring of active landslides in the Rules Reservoir (Southern Spain)

Landslides in reservoir contexts may generate critical and dangerous situations that usually lead to a large amount of material, economic and human losses. Remote sensing techniques have proven its effectiveness to avoid or minimize these disasters. One of these techniques refers to satellite radar interferometry (InSAR), which makes possible to detect millimetric ground surface movement at high temporal resolution. In this work, we present the results obtained through InSAR in the Rules Reservoir (Southern Spain). The integration of these data with geomorphological observations allowed us to define three active landslides in the reservoir slopes. Two of these landslides are of the retrogressive rotational type and they affect the N-323 National Road and the A-44 Highway viaduct. In addition, movement patterns show a correlation with changes in the level of the reservoir. The other landslide has a translational character and thus, a potential hazard of experiencing a critical acceleration and slope failure. This would generate a collapse of the sliding mass into the reservoir, that would have devastating consequences for the reservoir itself and surrounding areas. Therefore, we consider that continuous monitoring of these landslides is crucial to avoid, far enough in advance, irreversible damages that would affect the reservoir safety.