Proposed Survey Steps for Investigation of Land-Creeping Susceptibility Areas: A Focus on Geophysical Mapping of the Yongheung-dong, Pohang, Korea

Land creeping is the imperceptibly slow, steady, downward movement o f slope-forming soil or rock. Because creep-related failures occur frequently on a large scale without notice, they can be hazardous to both property and human life. Korea Forest Service has operated the prevention and response system from land creeping which has been on the rise since 2018. We categorized and proposed three survey steps (e.g., preliminary, regional, detailed) for investigation of creeping susceptibility site with a focus on geophysical mapping of a selected test site, Yongheung-dong, Pohang, Korea. The combination of geophysical (dipole-dipole electrical resistivity tomography and reciprocal seismic refraction technique, well-logging), geotechnical studies (standard penetrating test, laboratory tests), field mapping (tension cracks, uplift, fault), and comprehensive interpretation of their results provided the reliable information of the subsurface structures including the failure surface. To further investigate the subsurface structure including the sliding zone, we performed high-resolution geophysical mapping in addition to the regional survey. High-resolution seismic velocity structures are employed for stability analysis because they provided more simplified layers of weathering rock, soft rock, and hard rock. Curved slip plane of the land creeping is effectively delineated with a shape of downslope sliding and upward pushing at the apex of high resistive bedrock in high-resolution electrical resistivity model with clay-mineral contents taken into account. Proposed survey steps and comprehensive interpretation schemes of the results from geological, geophysical, and geotechnical data should be effective for data sets collected in a similar environment to land-creeping susceptibility area.