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Landslide
The term ‘landslide’ is generally used to
denote a downslope movement of mass of
earth, debris or rock down a slope due to the
action of external forces such as rainfall,
snowmelt, volcanic eruption, earthquakes,
anthropogenic activities etc.
Landslide in Sindhupalchowk and Gorkha
In the context of Nepal…
Landslides are more often in our country
because of it’s geographical landscape.
The main reason is rainfall, beside that
snowmelt and earthquake may be the
important factors for landslide in Nepal.
Human activities like construction,
deforestation, agricultural practices in steep
areas, overgrazing also creates a path for
landslide to occur.
Landslides occur when the stability of the slope
changes from a stable to an unstable condition. A
change in the stability of a slope can be caused by a
number of factors, acting together or alone.
Landslides cause loss of lives and properties from the
area where landslides occur or from the downslope
area due to the transport of the landslide materials
(sediment).
• Natural Factors
• Concentrated precipitation
• Seismic activity: The Himalayan Range lies
in a high seismicity belt. Several active faults
have mapped.
• Rise in groundwater table in the monsoon.
• Perched water table
• Inadequate size and choking of roadside
drains
• Liquefaction
• Swelling and Shrinking of Clay
Anthropogenic Factors
• Deforestation: intensive deforestation has taken
place in most parts of the Himalaya excepting the
higher Himalaya in the last decades
• Improper land-use:
(a) Agricultural practices on steep slopes
(b) Irrigation on steep and vulnerable slopes
(c) Over-grazing
(d) Quarrying for construction materials without
considering the condition of the terrain
• Construction activities
• Deep-seated Landslides
• Landslides in which the sliding surface is mostly
deeply located below the maximum rooting
depth of trees (typically a depth greater than 10
metres) are called deep-seated landslides.
• It is usually believed that the deep-seated
landslides are triggered by moderate rainfall
intensity distributed over long periods. Deep-
seated landslides are generally slow moving in
nature and rarely claim lives, but may cause
high property damage. The failure modes in
such cases are generally rotational or complex
types.
Shallow Landslides
• Landslides in which the sliding surface is located
within the soil mantle or weathered bedrock
(typically to a depth from a few decimetres to
several metres) are categorized as shallow
landslides. The surface of the slope in steep hilly
and mountainous regions is quite often underlain
by a plane of weakness lying parallel to it and
therefore, shallow landslides are predominant.
• In many cases, the shallow landslides are fast-
moving and are extremely destructive, causing
wide-spread damage and casualties. Shallow
landslides can pose grave threat to life and property.
Fall: A fall starts with
detachment of soil or rock
from a steep slope along a
surface on which little or
no shear displacement
takes place. The material
will then descend largely
through air by falling or
rolling
Topple: A toppling occurs
as a result of overturning
of blocks rather than
sliding or falling. It is a
forward rotation, out of
the slope, of a mass of soil
or rock about a point axis
below the gravity of the
displaced mass.
Slide: A slide is the downslope movement of a soil or
rock mass occurring dominantly on the surface of
rupture or relatively thin zones of intense shear
strain.
Transitional Rotational
Flows: In flows, materials move as a coherent but
constantly changing mass, involving internal shear or
mixing of the mass and even sorting based on
particle size and position in the flow. The distribution
of velocities in displacing mass resembles that in a
viscous fluid.
Topography
Vegetative cover
Causes of soil erosion
Deforestation
Ploughing
When trees are deforested
Ploughing with machinery
the root holding soil are
compacts soil. This creates
removed which then
channels for rapid water
leaves bare top soil
flow especially on slopes.
Vulnerable to extreme
wind and water damage.
Overgrazing
Fertilizers When large number of
Soils are not given time to animals are grazed in a
recover naturally when small area the vegetation
soil is used intensively is removed faster than it
can regrow leaving the
topsoil exposed.
Effects of soil erosion
- Loss of soil fertility.
- Loss of ability to hold water.
- Pollutes water, kills fish.
- Damages crops through sandblasting of young
seedlings
- Desertification
Mitigation measures