Landslides usually occur in the same areas, so if a landslide has occurred in … In recent times, landslides have increased both in frequency and intensity, causing widespread loss and damage to life, infrastructure, assets and property, and posing serious challenges to the existing development process. There are very obvious signs of movement: Managing urban landslides: the community centre at Dumsi Pakha. Actually, there are several ways. A public hearing and consultation is important in this regard. Your email address will not be published. The side-effects, so to speak, of Cyclone Komen, were again heavy rainfall, causing additional landslides and flooding which extended to all the coastal regions. How, one might ask, can we prevent a natural disaster of such scale? As I noted in an earlier post in this sequence, water management in the town on the slopes above is a key factor. Site, An interesting landslide problem, and an unusual management approach, are under way at Cromwell on the South Island of New Zealand. Appropriate feasibility studies, along with assessments of risk, uncertainty, possible consequences, constructability, environmental impacts and cost benefit analysis by independent authorities are needed for any mitigation measure. This is one of those gulleys: Managing urban landslides: a gully in Dumsi Pakha. For locals living in the hills, it is imperative that they are taught how to secure themselves against landslides. This blog To manage the hazard the road is closed at night. It seems inevitable that this unsupported slope will, in time, collapse. Dumsi Pakha is not exceptional or unusual – these types of problems are very commonplace. Consequently, the risks facing the urban poor remain unaddressed or partially addressed by relevant agencies. Early warning systems need to be strengthened, with active participation of community leaders. We should learn from their experiences and seek cooperation from them to enhance our capacity in managing landslide risks. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Regards, Your email address will not be published. A second series of heavy rain from July 22–27 caused new floods, landslides and further displacements. Landslide mitigation refers to lessening the aftereffects of landslides by taking various projects at vulnerable slopes. Detailed land use planning of the vulnerable areas, a landslide database, landslide mapping and geophysical analysis of the region are essential to minimise landslides and their impacts in the region. Note the boulders at the foot of the slope. This technique uses 1000 litre underslung buckets to deliver water onto the slope. It goes without saying that comprehensive, well-coordinated steps by the government are needed for sustainable landslide hazard management. There is a high chance that is in so doing it will cause severe damage to the house. First of all, by controlling the grabbing of state-owned land, such occurrences can definitely be limited. 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On my last day in Kalimpong, Praful Rao of Save the Hills took me to visit an area of comparatively low wealth below the main town. But the scale of the problems is so large that they cannot be solved alone. The losses have been monumental, and officials fear that the death toll may rise even further in the worst landslide since 2007, when a landslide resulted in the death of around 130 people and affected 1.5 million people in the region. The channel is of course dry towards the end of the dry season, and is choked with garbage. You can do this method yourself by planting a groundcover or hire a landscaper to vegetate the slope. Also in New Zealand, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has released the Quantitative Risk Assessments of the Cape Kidnappers site following the landslides there, which injured two people. Posted in: Your email address will not be published. To guarantee the best implementation of all this, adequate resources from the central government and development partners should be ensured by authorities and policymakers. At least 141 people (at the time of writing), including children and four army personnel, were killed in separate series of landslides triggered by heavy rains in Rangamati, Bandarban, and Chittagong on June 13, 2017. This is the community centre, which was completed in 2002. It made the headlines of The Press at the time; https://quakestudies.canterbury.ac.nz/store/object/19900 Landslides are the consequence of the political and administrative incapability to manage urban expansion. In many cases they are trying to manage the risk – for example they have built this retaining wall to try to stabilise a section of the slope that is particularly hazardous: Managing urban landslides: a retaining wall constructed by local people. The bridge across the gully is now extensively distorted, and the slope behind is moving quite extensively, as the steps behind Praful illustrate: Managing urban landslides: extensive movement due to reactivattion of existing landslides. Rohingya crisis: A concern for the region, Violence in Rakhine: India keeps off the Bali declaration. The Chittagong region is especially vulnerable due to various aspects, ranging from physical, social, political and environmental factors. Site. Cromwell: helicopter sluicing to manage a landslide. To manage the hazard the road is closed at night. One of the quickest and easiest ways to prevent a landslide on a slope is to vegetate it. Before a Landslide: A ground assessment should be done of your property. It is disheartening that despite the occurrence of such disasters in the past, we have learnt little from our experiences. But elsewhere in the settlement the problems are more local. Half of the participants in the process should be women, as they should also be trained on how to protect their homes, families and communities against such natural disasters. Capacity building courses on landslide hazard management is needed after a proper gap analysis. Landslide has always been a geological hazard in Bangladesh, especially in the southeastern part of the country. The Cromwell Gorge is one of the most famous landslide sites globally. It doesn’t look safe for me for those people standing above the headscarp – if the water does its job, then the slip might enlarge. The information is from the whole team involved in the work, from the site geologists to helicopter pilots. It will include a series of mini case studies of the sluicing at more than 20 sites. This area, called Dumsi Pakha, provides a sad case study of the way that urban development in steep terrains can lead to landslide problems, with catastrophic outcomes for the inhabitants. This video, posted to Youtube, shows this operation underway at Cromwell:-, The Otago Daily Times has a report on the helicopter sluicing operation at Cromwell:-. NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) said this morning that sluicing work, involving helicopters with monsoon buckets dropping water on the slip, would continue and traffic would be stopped for up to 30 minutes at a time. I think it is very important not to give the impression that the people living in Dumsi Pakha are passive victims of these problems. In order to ensure sustainable landslide management, contingency planning at different levels for emergency response should be developed and updated at least once a year. Heavy rainfall in North Luwu district of South Sulawesi province in Indonesia has killed 16 people and left 23 missing. Why should you care about the air you breathe? The clearest example is close to the community centre, where there is extensive movement occurring, bounded by the gully that I described above. In addition, integrating landslide risk reduction in existing development works and future initiatives of different government departments and others working in the area should be made a priority.