This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with our website and allow us to remember your browser. We use this information to improve and customize your browsing experience, for analytics and metrics about our visitors both on this website and other media, and for marketing purposes. By using this website, you accept and agree to be bound by UVic’s Terms of Use for web and social media privacy.  If you do not agree to the above, you can configure your browser’s setting to “do not track.”

Skip to main content
People Departments Maps Buildings Rooms A-Z
University
of Victoria
Apply Library
Sign in Online tools Sign out
Faculty of Graduate Studies

Sebastian Yerex

  • BSc (University of Victoria, 2024)

Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Science

Topic

Modeling logging road landslide hazards under changing environmental conditions

Department of Geography

Date & location

  • Monday, August 24, 2026

  • 10:00 A.M.

  • Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

  • Dr. Eva Kwoll, Department of Geography, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)

  • Dr. Marten Geertsema, Department of Geography, UVic (Co-Supervisor)

  • Dr. Sasha Ward, British Columbia Ministry of Forests, (Non-unit Member) 

External Examiner

  • Dr. Ben Leshchinsky, Forest Engineering, Resources & Management, Oregon State University 

Chair of Oral Examination

  • Dr. Barbara Hawkins, Department of Biology, UVic

     

Abstract

Shallow landslides pose substantial hazards and are influenced by both natural and anthropogenic factors. In regions with histories of industrial forestry, logging roads represent a major destabilizing factor. Additionally, changing wildfire and precipitation patterns are projected to increase landslide hazards in many areas. Landslide susceptibility models are critical for hazard assessment and forest management; however, the specific impacts of logging roads are largely overlooked, and models that do account for these effects require detailed field data that limit regional applicability. This thesis presents a physically-based landslide susceptibility model that requires only remote sensing-derived data while considering parameter uncertainty and spatial variability. Additionally, it introduces a framework to systematically account for the impacts of logging roads on key physical parameters, enabling estimates of landslide susceptibility with and without roads. The approach is applied to two physiographically distinct sites in British Columbia, the Chilliwack Valley and the Robson Valley, with differing histories of logging and wildfire. Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) seasonal and short duration rainfall projections as well as wildfire burn severity data are used to examine the effects of logging roads on landslide susceptibility under current and changing environmental conditions. Results show that logging roads increase the area of high landslide susceptibility by up to 18.9 times under current conditions, while amplifying the effects of future rainfall by up to 5% to 7% and wildfire by up to 25%. This thesis provides a scalable approach to quantify the effects of logging roads on landslide hazards that may be used to inform forward-looking management.

Back to oral exams