Spectral properties of active, suspended and relict landslides derived from Airborne Thematic Mapper Imagery

Broadway lies in a region of England that has been strongly affected by successive periods of periglacial conditions, located just below the southern extent of last glacial advances. Broadway contains evidence of relict periglacial features as well as more recent landslide activity. As part of a general study of mass movements in relict periglacial terrains, slope movements at Broadway have been categorised according to activity using ridge and furrow cultivation remains. Three categories of landslide activity have been identified at Broadway; active, suspended and relict landslides.

These three landslide categories have been incorporated into an airborne remote sensing study of landslides at Broadway, providing a training area for image processing routines. From this, spectral characteristics for each landslide category have been extracted and are presented here. The results demonstrate the importance of near and middle infra red bands in the study of landslides using airborne remote sensing platforms, it has also shown that relict and active landslides show distinct spectral differences in the near and middle infra red regions.