Nonlandslide

Nonlandslide is a term used primarily in geological hazard assessment and data labeling to describe areas, events, or observations that do not constitute a landslide. It is not a formal, widely adopted technical category with a single canonical definition, but rather a practical label used in inventories, remote-sensing analyses, and classification schemes to separate landslide activity from other terrain conditions.

In practice, the nonlandslide class encompasses stable slopes and areas where no rapid mass movement is detected during a given assessment period. It may also include terrains where slow processes such as soil creep or weathering occur without producing a recognizable landslide feature. In many datasets, nonlandslide serves as the complementary category to landslide, helping to quantify hazard exposure and to train models that distinguish between landslides and nonlandslide conditions.

Determining whether an area is nonlandslide involves field observations, aerial or satellite imagery, and sometimes LiDAR or radar data. Analysts look for indicators of landslide activity such as surface displacement, scarps, toppled or rotated blocks, disrupted drainage, and abrupt changes in topography. Absence of these indicators, together with consistent stable morphology over time, supports a nonlandslide classification. However, misclassification can occur when rapid but small-scale movements are missed or when data resolution is insufficient.

Related concepts include landslide, mass wasting, slope stability, and landslide inventory mapping. The term nonlandslide emphasizes classification and monitoring contexts rather than representing a distinct geologic process.