Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

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Ecological Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoleng

Modeling the contribution of trees to shallow landslide development

in a steep, forested watershed
Dongyeob Kim a , Sangjun Im a,b, , Changwoo Lee c , Choongshik Woo c
a
Department of Forest Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-921, Republic of
Korea
b
Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-921, Republic of Korea
c
Division of Forest Disaster Management, Department of Forest Conservation, Korea Forest Research Institute, 57 Hoigi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul
130-172, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 September 2012
Received in revised form 7 April 2013
Accepted 6 May 2013
Available online 24 June 2013
Keywords:
Shallow landslide
TRIGRS
Rainfall interception
Root reinforcement

a b s t r a c t
The objective of this study was to identify the contribution of trees to shallow landslide development
in a steep forested watershed using a deterministic modeling approach. Rainfall interception, tree root
reinforcement, and tree surcharge were considered the main factors. A revised version of the Transient Rainfall Inltration and Grid-based Regional Slope-stability (TRIGRS) model was employed in the
approach. Hydrological modications included adding the processes of rainfall interception using an
application of the Rutter model. The revised innite slope stability model was also used to consider tree
root reinforcement and tree surcharge. A comparative analysis was conducted with the results simulated by TRIGRS and the revised model to quantify the contribution of trees to landslide development.
The Bonghwa site in South Korea, which was damaged by an extreme storm with 228 mm of rainfall on
July 2425, 2008, was selected as the study site. Data related to the local topography, soil, and forest
properties were measured in the eld for use in the model simulations, although some data were taken
from the literature or assumed by the authors on the basis of the site characteristics. The results showed
the rainfall interception did not signicantly affect the amount of rainfall reaching the soil surface, but
it changed the temporal distribution of the rainfall intensity. Additionally, the rainfall interception was
found to have little inuence on inltration from the simulation results of pore water pressure. The results
of the simulated factor of safety indicated that root reinforcement and tree surcharge made signicant
contributions to the enhancement of slope stability. The simulation results were compared to the results
from locations in which landslides occurred, indicating that the revised model estimated the landslide
susceptibility over the entire study site well, while TRIGRS appeared to overestimate the risk of shallow landslides. In conclusion, trees appeared to make a signicant mechanical contribution to shallow
landslide development during a severe storm event in steep, forested watersheds. Efforts to revise the
existing model improved its performance to assess the shallow landslide susceptibility of mountainous
watersheds despite some limitations of the current study.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Landslides are caused by compositive interactions among natural internal factors and external factors (Carrara et al., 1999), except
for anthropogenic factors, e.g., forest road construction, clearcut
harvesting, and land use changes. Internal factors are intrinsic environmental properties of a specic region such as topographical,

Corresponding author at: Department of Forest Sciences, College of Agriculture

and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151921, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 2 880 4759; fax: +82 2 873 3560.
E-mail addresses: junie@snu.ac.kr, sangjunim@gmail.com (S. Im).
0925-8574/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.05.003

geological, pedological, hydrological, and vegetational features,

while external factors are direct (or indirect) triggers that initiates landslides, such as earthquakes, rainfall, snowfall, and volcanic
activity. Most landslides are typically initiated by external factors,
but internal factors also signicantly contribute to landslide initiation and development.
Forest properties are one of the inuential internal factors
that cause landslides, especially rainfall-induced shallow landslides. These properties are easier to monitor and manage than
other internal factors. Some researchers have reported relationships between forest conditions and landslide occurrence. It
was reported that the landslide occurrence rate in harvested
areas was 3.5 times greater than that in unharvested areas over

D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

approximately twenty years in Southeast Alaska (Swanston and

Marion, 1991). In addition, the frequency of landslides in logged
areas was found to be 9 times higher than that of unlogged forest
areas around Vancouver Island, BC, Canada (Jakob, 2000).
On an individual-tree-scale, the inuences of a single tree on
slope stability, especially hydromechanical inuences, were widely
reviewed by Greenway (1987), Gray and Sotir (1996), and Stokes
et al. (2008). Hydrologically, a tree intercepts rainfall with its
canopy and stem, and the tree reduces the amount of water in soil
via transpiration. However, the tree can enhance water inltration
by developing pores in the soil to increase the water content of the
soil. Mechanically, a tree strengthens soil stability by its root while
its surcharge boosts soil shear stress to create an adverse inuence on slope stability. A signicant amount of research quantifying
the inuence of a tree on slope stability with a focus of soil reinforcement by tree roots using various methods has been conducted
(e.g., Burroughs and Thomas, 1977; Wu et al., 1979; Buchanan and
Savigny, 1990; Norris and Greenwood, 2003; Pollen and Simon,
2005; Cazzuf et al., 2006; Mickovski et al., 2007; Docker and
Hubble, 2008).
In South Korea, many shallow landslides occurred recently, and
many of them contributed to the initiation or transformation to
debris ows resulting in vast damage in downstream areas. Characteristically, most landslide-damaged areas in South Korea were
on steep, forested mountainous regions with shallow soil depth
(internal factors) and were thought to be caused by heavy rainfall
events (external factors). Therefore, assessing of the contributions
of trees to landslides is important to evaluate the regional-scaled
landslide susceptibility in South Korea. However, limited research
(e.g., Wu and Sidle, 1995; Bathurst et al., 2010) has been performed
to quantitatively evaluate the regional landslide susceptibility in
terms of the contribution of trees.
The main objective of the current study was to identify the contribution of trees to landslide development using a deterministic
modeling approach. For a more detailed analysis, we concentrated
on specic conditions, i.e., landslide type, landslide location, and
timing of landslide. The current study focused on only rainfalltriggered shallow landslides on a steep, forested area during a
storm event. Specic tree properties that affect shallow landslide
development during a storm event were selected, and a physically based model that considers tree effects on a shallow landslide
was constructed. Finally, the constructed model was applied to
landslide-damaged areas. Modeling processes were sufciently
described in the following sections.

As tree effects for the revised model, the rainfall interception,

root reinforcement, and tree surcharge were determined in consideration of their signicance and modeling capability. In terms of
the hydrological inuence of trees on landslides, the annual interception loss is estimated to be one quarter or more of the annual
total rainfall, which is a signicant amount (Dingman, 2002). In
addition, rainfall interception is still thought to work during a rainfall event. Thus, a model for rainfall interception was constructed
by revising the selected existing model, TRIGRS. In contrast, root
uptake was excluded for the revision work because its inuence
was not signicant during a rainfall event compared to the complexity of modeling its process. Meanwhile, root reinforcement and
tree surcharge were thought to be the most signicant mechanical
factors, which were modeled as terms of slope stability model that
calculates the factor of safety (FS).
2.1.1. TRIGRS
TRIGRS (Transient Rainfall Inltration and Grid-Based Regional
Slope-Stability Model), developed by the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS), is designed to model the timing and distribution of shallow rainfall-induced landslides (Baum et al., 2002). This physically
based model calculates the changing pore water pressures during
rainfall. TRIGRS consists of an inltration model that has a governing equation based on the linearized solution of the Richards
equation (Iverson, 2000; Baum et al., 2002) and an innite equilibrium slope stability model. It is widely used to assess shallow
landslide susceptibility in various regions (e.g., Baum et al., 2005;
Salciarini et al., 2006; Sorbino et al., 2010; Vieira et al., 2010). TRIGRS is thought to be suitable for assessing landslide susceptibility
in South Korea because the major type of landslide in this region
is a shallow slip-type landslide that most often occurs during the
summer season due to heavy rainfall. However, this model cannot
consider the tree effects with which the current study is concerned.
Thus, TRIGRS was selected as a base model in the current study.
2.1.1.1. Hydrological model of TRIGRS. The hydrological model
of TRIGRS simulates two hydrologic processes: inltration, and
runoff. Conceptually, water can either inltrate into the soil or run
down to adjacent downslope cells in the TRIGRS simulation. For
each time step of one simulation, these processes occur instantaneously from cell to cell, and rainfall eventually inltrates into
the soil or exltrates from the spatial domain of the simulation at
boundary cells during any given time step.
On a cell simulated by TRIGRS, inltration is determined by the
relationship of precipitation, runoff from upslope, and saturated
hydraulic conductivity using the following Eq. (1):

2. Materials and methods

I=

P + Ru

P + Ru Ks

Ks

P + Ru > Ks

2.1. Overview of modeling framework

The overall goal of the modeling was the comparative analysis of the simulation results using an existing original model and
a revised model that considered tree effects. Existing models for
shallow landslide susceptibility were considered for revisions. The
selection criteria of existing models were (1) a physically based
model, (2) a temporally dynamic hydrological model, and (3) a
model that did not consider tree effects. A physically based model
was required to quantify the process-based contributions of trees to
landslide development. Some existing physically based models for
rainfall-induced shallow landslide, e.g., SHASLSTAB (Montgomery
and Dietrich, 1994), dSLAM (Wu and Sidle, 1995), SINMAP (Pack
et al., 1998), SHETRAN-landslide (Burton and Bathurst, 1998), and
TRIGRS (Baum et al., 2002), were evaluated with the criteria. TRIGRS
was ultimately selected as a base model for the revisions.

659

(1)

where I is inltration at each cell, P is precipitation, Ru is runoff from

upslope cells, and Ks is saturated hydraulic conductivity. Runoff to
adjacent downslope cell is calculated as the excess of inltration
immediately after determination of inltration as follows,

Rd =

P + Ru I

P + Ru > I

P + Ru = I

(2)

where Rd is runoff to downslope cells. In the process of runoff, the

direction of the runoff depends on the elevation difference among
adjacent cells.
The inltration model of TRIGRS has two forms depending on
different basal boundary conditions: one for an innitely deep
basal boundary condition, and the other for an impermeable basal
boundary condition at a nite depth. Considering the geological

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D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

condition of South Korea, the impermeable basal condition model

was applied in the current study. Eq. (3) represents the governing
equation of the inltration model with the impermeable boundary
condition where the rst term represents the steady part, while the
remaining terms represents the transient part. The pressure head
as a function of depth is temporally calculated based on the initial soil water conditions, and the additional inltrated water. This
inltration model can be applied to tension-saturated soil.

which is stored is then divided to throughfall, stemow, and evaporation. The canopy or stem is assumed to not generate any output
until it has become fully saturated with input rainfall. In this study,
the original Rutter model was revised to consider simplied calculations and weather conditions during heavy storms that can cause
landslides. No stemow was assumed, meaning that the stem effect
was not considered in the revised model, due to the stemows

1

N InZ
(2m 1)dLZ (dLZ Z)
(2m 1)dLZ + (dLZ Z)
(Z, t) = (Z d) + 2 n=1
H(t tn )[D1 (t tn )] 2
ierfc
+
ierfc

1
1
Ks
m=1

2[D1 (t
2[D1 (t
tn )] 2

tn )] 2

N InZ

n=1

Ks

(2m 1)dLZ (dLZ Z)

(2m 1)dLZ + (dLZ Z)
ierfc
+ ierfc

1
1
m=1

1

H(t tn+1 )[D1 (t tn+1 )] 2

2[D1 (t tn+1 )] 2

where
is the pore water pressure as a head of water (m), Z is
soil depth (m), t is time (s), d is the steady-state depth of the water
table measured in the vertical direction, = cos2  (IZLT /Ks ),  is the
slope angle ( ), IZLT is the steady (initial) surface ux, Ks is the vertical saturated hydraulic conductivity, N is the total number of time
intervals, InZ is the surface ux of a given intensity for the nth time
interval, H(t tn ) is the Heaviside step function, tn is the time at the
nth time interval in the rainfall inltration sequence, D1 = D0 /cos2 ,
D0 is the saturated hydraulic diffusivity, dLZ is the depth of the
impermeable basal boundary measured in the Z-direction, and the
function ierfc is of the form
1
ierfc() = exp(2 ) erfc()


(4)

where erfc() is the complementary error function.

This inltration model of TRIGRS is a one-dimensional inltration model with the assumption of no lateral groundwater ow
in the soil. Therefore, TRIGRS is suitable for assessing the environments where vertical gravitational ow is dominant, such as in the
early stage of a storm and/or on a steep hillslope. However, it is not
suitable for assessing the environments where lateral groundwater
ow is signicant. Detailed descriptions of the hydrological model
of TRIGRS are provided in the TRIGRS manual (Baum et al., 2002).
2.1.1.2. Slope stability model of TRIGRS. TRIGRS calculates FS as
index of slope stability on independent cells using a simple innite slope stability model. In the analysis, FS is calculated as the
ratio of resisting stress to gravitational driving stress. A slope is
predicted to be stable when FS 1, while a slope is predicted to
be unstable (failed) when FS < 1. The equation of the slope stability
model follows:

FS(Z, t) =

c  + s Z cos2 

(Z, t)w tan 

s Z sin  cos 

2[D1 (t tn+1 )] 2

minor inuence on the total interception loss during heavy rainfall

events. In addition, the canopys evaporation rate was assumed to
have a maximum potential evaporation rate because this rate is
determined by the canopy saturation in the Rutter model, and the
canopy would become fully saturated very rapidly during a heavy
storm. The storage equation in the Rutter model, which is expressed
in an exponential form, was also revised to focus on the dripping
process during storms (Calder, 1977; Kim, 1993):

dC
= bC Q
dt

2.1.2. Rainfall interception model

The Rutter model (Rutter et al., 1971, 1975) was selected as a
rainfall interception model to estimate the amount of interception loss and effective rainfall. The Rutter model is a conceptual
model that considers the tree canopy and stem as tanks with specic water storage capacities. In the Rutter model, the rainfall input
is distributed to the canopy, trunk, and to free throughfall, and that

(6)

where C is the canopy water storage (mm), t is time (min), b is

the drip coefcient (min1 ), and Q is the rainfall entering into the
canopy (mm min1 ).
2.1.3. Revised innite slope stability model
The original slope stability model of TRIGRS is a simple innite
slope stability model that does not include any term to account the
effects of trees on slope stability. Thus, we introduced the innite
slope model including terms for tree root reinforcement and tree
surcharge from Hammond et al. (1992). The equation is expressed
such as Eq. (7),
FS =

cr + c  + {mt + (Z Zw ) + (sat w )Zw } cos2  tan 

{mt + (Z Zw ) + sat Zw } sin  cos 

(7)

where cr is the root reinforcement (kPa), mt is the tree surcharge

(kPa),  is the moist soil unit weight (kN m3 ), Zw is the saturated
soil depth (m), and  sat is the saturated soil unit weight (kN m3 ).
This equation assumes the steady groundwater ows by the term
Zw , so Eq. (7) was modied such as Eq. (8) to integrate it with the
transient inltration model of TRIGRS.

(5)

where FS is the factor of safety, c is the soil effective cohesion (kPa),

 s is the soil unit weight (kN m3 ),  is the slope angle ( ), is the
pore water pressure expressed as a head of water (m),  w is the
water unit weight (kN m3 ), and  is the soil effective internal
friction angle ( ).

(3)

FS(Z, t) =

cr + c  + {mt cos2  + s Z cos2  (Z, t)w } tan 

(mt + s Z) sin  cos 

(8)

2.1.4. The revised model-integration of TRIGRS and tree effect

models
Fig. 1 shows the composition and data process ow of the
revised model. In the revised model, the inltration model of TRIGRS was integrated with the rainfall interception model, and the
slope stability model of TRIGRS was replaced with the revised slope
stability model that considers root reinforcement and tree surcharge. The process of evaluating landslide susceptibility with the
revised model consists of three steps: effective rainfall estimation,
pore water pressure calculation, and FS calculation. First, the rainfall interception model estimates interception loss and effective

D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

Soil
Properties

The original TRIGRS

Rainfall
Data

661

Topographical
Properties

Infiltration
Model
Pore Water
Pressure

Slope Stability
Model

Factor of Safety
(FS)

(a) The original TRIGRS

Forest
Properties

Soil
Properties

Rainfall
Data

Topographical
Properties

The revised TRIGRS

Interception
Model
Effective
Rainfall

Infiltration
Model
Pore Water
Pressure

Slope Stability
Model

Root
Reinforcement
Tree
Surcharge

< Legend>
: Original Model
: Revised Model
(Tree Effect)

Factor of Safety
(FS)

(b) The revised TRIGRS

Fig. 1. Conceptual diagram of TRIGRS and the revised model.

rainfall, which is the net amount of rainfall that reaches soil surface, using data of hourly rainfall and forest properties as input.
This model calculates the hourly effective rainfall and then inputs
the effective rainfall data into the inltration model. This inltration model calculates the corresponding changes in pore water

pressure and water table depth in the series using the estimated
effective rainfall. Finally, the revised slope stability model calculates FS based on these calculated pore water pressure values, along
with root reinforcement and tree surcharge, over every simulated
hour.

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D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

It has a temperate monsoonal climate with an annual mean temperature of 9.9 C and an annual mean precipitation of 1217.9 mm
measured over past 30 years (19812010). However, rainfall during summer (June, July, and August) is approximately 60% of the
total precipitation. The Bonghwa site is situated on a steep valley with a maximum slope angle of 45 and an elevation ranging
from 593 to 722 m.a.s.l. The forest type on this land is an articially replanted forest, and the predominant species is 20-year-old
Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis). The forest is well developed and fully
stocked and has a high density of canopy. The soil type is sandy
loam, meaning that it has a very good drainage rate. The bedrock
in the Bonghwa site is composed of metamorphosed sedimentary
rock and schist.
2.3. Storm event July 2425, 2008
The storm event that caused landslides on the Bonghwa site
produced a total of 228 mm of rainfall over 18 h between 20:00 on
July 24 and 13:00 on July 25, 2008. Antecedent rainfall of approximately 100 mm fell on the Bonghwa site on July 19, 2008, ve days
before the main storm. The hourly average intensity of this rainfall
was 12.7 mm h1 , and the highest intensity was 38 mm h1 . Fig. 3
shows a hyetograph of the storm event in July 2008 at the Bonghwa
site, which was produced from hourly rainfall data collected at an
adjacent Korea Meteorological Administration weather station.
2.4. Data acquisition and model parameterization

Fig. 2. Location, elevation, and soil depth of the Bonghwa site.

2.2. Study site

A small watershed of approximately 14,000 m2 in Bonghwa,
South Korea, was selected as a study site. Referred to as the
Bonghwa site, this area was damaged by shallow landslides that
were triggered by an extreme storm on July 2425, 2008. The storm
caused six shallow landslides covering an average area of 233 m2
and had an average depth of less than 1 m. The Bonghwa site is
located in the central-eastern part of the Korean peninsula (Fig. 2).

The topographical data for the TRIGRS and the revised models were generated from 1:5000-scaled digital terrain maps. A
5 m 5 m-sized Digital Elevation Model (DEM), ow direction map,
and slope angle map for the Bonghwa site were constructed using
ArcGIS 9.3 (ESRI, Inc.). In addition, a soil depth map was prepared
using spline interpolation with 109 point samples of the soil depth
over the entire study site. These soil depths were measured using
in situ manual soil penetration tests, and measured values of soil
depth ranged up to 2.7 m over the watershed area, with an average
depth of 0.9 m.
The mechanical properties of the soil were estimated based on
the soil type, topography, and vegetational characteristics of the
Bonghwa site to consider the uncertainty of the measured soil
property data. Thus, the total unit weight, cohesion, and internal friction angle of the soil were set to 14.71 kN m3 , 5.2 kPa,
and 34 , respectively. Soil hydraulic conductivity was measured
to 4.52 105 m s1 using Guelph permeameter (Eijkelkamp, Inc.).
The parameters for the rainfall interception model were based
on digital forest stock maps and empirical data from the 26-yearold pine (Pinus rigitaeda) forest (Kim, 1993). In particular, canopy
storage (S), the fraction of free throughfall (p), and the drip coefcient (b) were set to 1.49 mm, 0.268, and 0.04 min1 , respectively.
The potential evaporation rate (Ep ) was assumed to be 0.3 mm h1
over the entire simulated period.
Lacking the baseline information on the distribution of trees
and tree roots to measure root reinforcement prior to landslides
initiation, estimate was therefore adopted from previous studies.
In general, root reinforcement of pine trees ranges from 0.4 kPa
to 21.8 kPa depending on species, root density, soil properties
and assessment methods (Gray and Megahan, 1981; Waldron and
Dakessian, 1981; Ziemer, 1981; Waldron et al., 1983; Gray, 1995;
Campbell and Hawkins, 2003; Van Beek et al., 2005). Ziemer (1981)
also reported 3.021.0 kPa for lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) using
in situ direct shear test which could reect spatial variability of
root reinforcement well. In this study, 3.0 kPa was adopted as the
root reinforcement to represent the typical tendency that root
reinforcement decreases with depth. It was supported by the

D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

663

Fig. 3. Hyetograph of the landslide-occurring rainfall storm on July 24, 2008, in Bonghwa site.

observation of the shallow rooting pattern of trees around the

landslide scars of the Bonghwa site.
Tree surcharge was assumed to be 2.94 kPa due to the dominant tree species, forest age, and forest density. The trees on the
Bonghwa site were very densely planted, which is why the tree
surcharge was set to such a high value.
In terms of the initial setting of the TRIGRS simulations, the
soilwater condition when the landslides began cannot be estimated exactly because no monitoring system was employed on the
site when the landslide occurred. In the current study, the soil in
the Bonghwa site was assumed to be tension-saturated for application of the inltration model of TRIGRS. Therefore, no detailed
unsaturated soilwater characteristics, e.g., soilwater characteristic curve, were required for the simulation. This assumption
appears to have little impact when assessing the contributions of
trees on landslide. In addition, the groundwater table was assumed
to lie on the boundary between soil and bedrock because groundwater commonly lies in very deep soil around the mountain tops of
South Korea, and soil depth is shallow over the Bonghwa site. Using

previous research showing a comparison with the measured value

of saturated hydraulic conductivity (e.g., Godt et al., 2008; Liu and
Wu, 2008), the initial inltration rate was set to 4.52 109 m s1 .
3. Results
3.1. Effective rainfall results
Fig. 4 shows hyetographs of the total observed rainfall and the
simulated effective rainfall. The temporal distribution of the simulated effective rainfall was different from that of the observed
rainfall. The effective rainfall was smaller than the observed rainfall at each time step when the observed rainfall intensity was
relatively high, while the effective rainfall was greater than the
observed rainfall when the latter was relatively low. However,
the total amount of intercepted rainfall was simulated to be only
4.5 mm over the entire period (Fig. 5). These results indicated that
the interception loss made up only a small portion of the total
observed rainfall during an extreme rainfall event that caused

45
Observed Rainfall

Rainfall Intensity (mm/hr.)

40

Simulated Effective Rainfall

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
20 21 22 23 24 1
2
July 25
July 24, 2008

10 11 12 13

Time (h)

Fig. 4. Temporal distribution of observed rainfall and simulated effective rainfall by the rainfall interception model.

664

D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

Cumulative Rainfall Amount (mm)

250

Obs.
Sim.
Obs. - Sim.

200

150

100

50

0
0

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Elapsed Time (h)

Fig. 5. Accumulated amount of observed rainfall and simulated effective rainfall by the canopy intercept model.

landslides. However, rainfall interception could inuence when

landslides are initiated through changes in the temporal distribution of the rainfall.
3.2. TRIGRS and the revised model simulation results
In Fig. 6, a series of pore water pressure simulated by TRIGRS
and the revised model at the depth of the lowest FS is shown over
time. The results of both models show the same trend of negative
pore water pressures (suction) increasing up to positive pressures
over time. However, there are no signicant differences between
the two results. At the end of the simulation (elapsed time = 18 h),
the average value of the pore water pressure of the study site was
calculated to be 0.6293 m using TRIGRS and 0.6267 m using the
revised model. These results indicate that the tree rainfall interception had little inuence on inltration because other parameters
that could affect the pore water pressure were consistent for the
both simulations.
Fig. 7 shows a series of FS simulated by the TRIGRS and revised
models over time. For both models, the results show that FS continuously decreased over the entire area during the simulated time
period. However, FS seemed to approach its minimum value only
9 h after the rainfall started. It was thought that the high rainfall
intensity around that time period was enough to maximize the
failure potentials in each cell, as shown in Fig. 3. In addition, Fig. 7
graphically indicates that the revised model generated higher FS
values than did the TRIGRS model. Meanwhile, the revised model
captured locations in which landslides occurred relatively well,
while TRIGRS evaluated too low slope stabilities, i.e., FSs over wide
areas. It is known that TRIGRS tends to overestimate landslide susceptibility in a region (Tsai and Chiang, 2012). Fig. 8 shows the
cumulative distributions of FS simulated by TRIGRS and the revised
model at t = 0 and t = 18. In particular, from a total of 552 simulated
cells the revised model simulated 66 cells (12.0%) which had FS values of less than 1.0 while TRIGRS simulated 146 cells (26.4%). The
average simulated FS value was 2.061, and the minimum value was
0.7490 in the revised model. On the other hand, the average value
was 1.987, and the minimum value was 0.6176 in TRIGRS.
4. Discussion and conclusions
In terms of hydrological circulation, rainfall interception is
thought to be a component of evaporation because rainfall that is
temporarily captured by the canopy eventually evaporates or drips
from the canopy in the form of throughfall or stemow, and the

difference between the total and effective rainfall is the quantity

of the total rainfall that has evaporated in the end. Over a longterm time span, evaporation can be a critical factor for reducing the
risk of shallow landslide incidents. However, the inuence of evaporation on landslide development is thought to be minor during
extreme storms with short durations because the weather conditions during such extreme storms are very humid. Therefore, the
evaporation rate is low, and there is not enough time for interception loss to reach a critical level that would affect landslide
development. In fact, more than half of the annual total interception loss occurs after rainfall events nishes (Reid and Lewis,
2007). Therefore, the rainfall interception of 4.5 mm simulated by
the model in this study was a low but appropriate value, although
a very high evaporation of 0.3 mm h1 was assumed for the rainfall
interception model. Meanwhile, the rainfall interception can affect
the temporal distribution of effective rainfall through delays during
canopy saturation, as shown in Fig. 4. Although the Rutter model
is a conceptual model that cannot perfectly simulate the natural
process of rainfall interception, the results it produces are reasonable to a certain extent when considering the high water storage
capacity of a tree canopy or stem.
In light of the mechanical effects of trees on landslide development, uniform values for the root reinforcement the tree surcharge
were applied to the simulations assuming the study site had homogeneous forest properties. These values were spatially averaged
values, but, in reality, tree surcharge acts as a point load that is
not uniformly distributed, and root reinforcement decreases with
depth. Because the mechanical effects can spatially vary depending on the position of a single tree, their relevant values should
be selected carefully. In the current study, the simulation results
showed that the mechanical factors substantially affected slope
stability, and the results simulated by the revised model captured
landslide-damaged areas well compared to the results given by TRIGRS despite the application of estimates, but not measurements.
In general, parametric analysis is a good option to identify the
mechanical effects of trees in a regional scale lacking detailed information of distribution and growth of trees.
In terms of the magnitude of the effects that controlling factors have on FS, the magnitude of pore water pressure is denitely
greater than that of tree effects, as shown Fig. 8. However, Fig. 8 also
shows trees contribute to slope stability positively until FS = 2.0.
This implies that aside from pore water pressure, trees also have
considerable inuence on shallow landslide initiation, although the
critical point that positive tree contribution is converted into the
negative one depends on the relationship between a ratio of tree

D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

665

Fig. 6. Results of pore water pressure at the depth of the lowest FS simulated by TRIGRS and the revised model with time.

root reinforcement and surcharge, and other geographical properties, especially slope angle.
Overall, the results of pore water pressure and FS in the
Bonghwa site indicates that the effects of trees to shallow landslide

development during a severe storm can be largely attributed to

their mechanical functions, but not their hydrological function. The
amount of the rainfall interception was not substantial due to the
short duration time, and the effect of redistributed effective rainfall

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D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

Fig. 7. Results of FS simulated by TRIGRS and the revised model with time.

was also not substantial due to the high rainfall intensity. However, the hydrological effects of trees, e.g., evaporation by rainfall
interception and transpiration by root uptake, can be more significant than the mechanical effects in places where its hydrological

characteristics often uctuate, during a long-term time span. For

instance, Simon and Collison (2002) found that the hydrological
effects of trees seasonally enhanced slope stability two-fold more
than did the mechanical effects in a streambank. However, it was

D. Kim et al. / Ecological Engineering 61P (2013) 658668

Cumulative Area (%)

100
80
60
40

TRIGRS, t=0
The revised, t=0

20

TRIGRS, t=18
The revised, t=18

0
0

Factor of Safety (FS)

Fig. 8. Cumulative distribution of FS simulated by TRIGRS and the revised model.

also found that the magnitude of the hydrological effects uctuated temporally during the season, while that of the mechanical
effects remained essentially constant. Therefore, it is very important to understand that the contribution of trees to slope stability
can be estimated in different ways, depending on the time scale of
analysis.
Moreover, the mechanical effects of trees on landslides appear
to vary depending on the method of evaluation. In the current
study, the revised slope stability model could have two potential
drawbacks if it will be used to assess landslide susceptibility in
regional scale. First, the innite slope stability model can apply to
only shallow planar landslides, but not for deep-seated landslides,
or circularly failed landslides. Second, the innite slope stability model cannot consider lateral root reinforcement although it
apparently affects shallow landslide initiation. These limitations
can be attributed to the rigid characteristics of TRIGRS being a onedimensional and cell-based approach. Therefore, it is needed to
specify conditions of target landslides to analyze.
In conclusion, trees have signicant mechanical effects on shallow landslide development in steep, forested watersheds during a
severe storm event. The revised model offers better assessment
for shallow landslide susceptibility of mountainous watersheds.
Although measured data for some simulation parameters were
lacking and a quantitative analysis of tree effects was not completely performed, we tried to model and analyze the tree effects
using a physically based approach, in terms of the case of the
landslide-occurred site. Further study to quantify the impacts of
trees on shallow landslides under various rainfall and topographical conditions was also regarded important to improve the model.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Korea Forest Research Institute. The authors would like to thank the graduate students, Eun
in Forest Engineering
Jai Lee, Byungkyu Ahn, and Dixon T. Gevana
Laboratory, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea for their
efforts in data collection.
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