A growing number of displaced people are settling in mountain regions prone to slow-moving landslides, those that move between 1 millimeter (.04 inches) and 3 meters (9.8 feet) per year. A new study offers a global assessment of how the pressures of human settlement increase exposure to such landslides. As people migrate from rural to urban areas in search of work or to flee conflict, some settle in areas susceptible to slow‐moving landslides. The same is true of people driven away from lower-lying areas prone to floods. The study notes that poverty, among other things, often forces communities to high-hazard areas. A team of 18 researchers compiled a global database of 7,764 slow-moving landslides across nine mountainous regions worldwide. The most densely inhabited landslides were in northwestern South America and southeastern Africa. Slow-moving landslides rarely claim lives but they can cause significant damage to buildings and infrastructure. “Most landslides are a sudden failure and cause damage rapidly to a small area. Slow-moving landslides on the other hand, affect a large area with a potential of removing whole villages,” Manabendra Saharia, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi told Mongabay over email. Saharia is not associated with this research. Another study on a similar topic focused on the Arno River Basin in central Italy found slow-moving landslides are responsible for roughly 7 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in total damage. Despite the risks, urbanization and uphill migration to avoid flooding are pushing people in the region to…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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