Landslide management: concept and philosophy

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to promote sustainable development through disaster management.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on extensive field observations and intensive review of literature from secondary sources.FindingsIn recent times landslides have increased both in frequency and intensity and have assumed catastrophic and disastrous proportions, causing extensive damage to life and property and posing great problems and serious challenges to man and his development process. This increase has been triggered by a combination of several attributes (geological, morphometric, climatic and anthropogenetic) that directly or indirectly cause slope instability, most of which (if not all) are either man‐made or man‐accelerated. Thus, most of the disasters are natural events aggravated by undue human intervention. Man, through his intervention, has accelerated this natural process and his encroachment on the relatively unsafe areas has turned them into disasters. The effect of man on natural processes can be judged from the fact that the frequency of natural disasters/hazards has recorded more than a fivefold increase just in the last two decades, despite all the hue and cry that has been going on all round the world. The economic losses on account of such happenings have shot up by over 3.5 times, and the rise in total insured losses is about six times and, with the present trends (particularly of ignorance, carelessness, lack of will and finances, greed, increasing population and also human demands) and situations, it can safely be predicted that the worst is still to come.Practical implicationsLandslides are a natural phenomenon and every year hundreds of major and minor landslides occur in the hills, though only a few major ones are reported by the print and electronic media, and still fewer are studied and/or analyzed in some detail. The present paper presents a valuable insight into various aspects of landslide management to spread awareness, to educate and sensitize people towards better and effective landslide hazard mitigation and thereby ensure people's participation in disaster management. It also aims to initiate and encourage research in the field of landslide management.Originality/valueThe paper hopes to minimize losses due to landslides through better knowledge and enhanced levels of understanding of the phenomenon and its management.