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Loess regions face significant challenges in quantifying hydrological processes and assessing geological environmental risks due to the prevalent development of preferential pathways and the limitations of existing monitoring technologies. To advance this knowledge, this study presents an improved electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) device, specifically designed for loess moisture observations. By refining the testing principle, power supply mode, and data collection method within the existing ERT framework, the new device offers unmanned operation, automatic data acquisition, remote transmission, and cost efficiency. It effectively tracks water movement and groundwater level fluctuations across various hydrological conditions, supporting long-term online monitoring of hydrological processes of loess slopes. Through the analysis of monitoring data and classification of 12 observed preferential flow types, water movement in loess systems can be generalized into four general patterns: uniform infiltration, preferential infiltration, inflowing diffusion, and lateral flow. This generalized scheme provides a simplified modeling approach for other researchers to quantify slope hydrodynamics and to assess geological safety risks involving preferential flow. Based on these insights and field investigations, a conceptual framework is proposed to elucidate the seepage-structure synergistic initiating mechanism of loess landslides. This framework suggests that water entry and movement patterns within the slope depend on the slope geological structure related to preferential pathways and the prevailing hydrological scenarios. Landslide occurs as the result of the progressive failure and reciprocal evolution between the slope hydrological environments and geological structure, which may also pose potential eco-hydrological risks. The outcome advances the development of slope hydrological monitoring technology and enhances the understanding of water movement laws and the associated geological environmental risks in loess slope systems, which is of vital importance to the early warning methods of loess landslides that account for preferential flow and for theoretical modeling of preferential flow in related disciplines., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)