Mitigating drought and landslide simultaneously for mountain tribes of Taiwan: hydrogeological investigation, modelling, and development of an intelligent hazard prevention system

Drought and landslide are two common hazards that occurred in mountainous regions of Taiwan. This study is intended to develop a new concept of hazard prevention and management for solving both hazards simultaneously, in which the complex hazard has increased over the years in intensity and frequency due to climate variability and change. The proposed concept is a win–win solution that contains the feature of efficiency to mitigate two hazards together. When pumping groundwater as daily water demand at landslide-prone sites, the pore-water pressure decreases and the thickness of the unsaturated zone increases, which can result in stabilizing landslide-prone slopes and increasing flood storage capacity as an underground detention basin, respectively. Consequently, this approach can reduce the risk induced by the two hazards. To reinforce the effectiveness and instantaneity of hazard management, the technologies of smart sensing, smart transmission, and smart computing are then incorporated into a novel framework to develop an intelligent hazard prevention and management system. Thus, the groundwater supply-slope stability management system was installed and tested in the remote Kaoshi tribe, which is situated in Kaoshi Village of Mudan Township, Pingtung County, southern Taiwan. Hydrogeological issues for subsurface complexity, field investigations, and numerical modelling for preliminary evaluation and system design are also highlighted in this study. The developed system, which can offer valuable support for decision-making processes of hazard prevention, is capable of monitoring dynamic signals from various in-situ sensors, helping water resource allocations, and stabilizing hill slopes by means of drainage.