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Kyoji Sassa · Matjaž Mikoš
Yueping Yin Editors
Advancing Culture of
Living with Landslides
Volume 1
ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025
Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides
Kyoji Sassa Matjaž Mikoš
•
Yueping Yin
Editors
Hiroshima landslide disasters in August 2014, Hiroshima, Japan (PASCO Corporation—Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd. All
Rights Reserved)
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017. This book is an open access publication.
Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in
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tions.
Every year, disasters induced by natural hazards affect millions of people across the world.
The loss of life is tragic, impacting on communities for the long term.
The costs are also economic, as disasters are responsible for estimated annual economic
losses of around USD 300 billion. With the rising pressures of climate change, overpopulation,
and urbanization, we can expect costs to increase ever more.
We cannot prevent disasters, but we can prepare for them better. This is the importance
of the International Consortium on Landslides, supported actively by UNESCO, to advance
research and build capacities for mitigating the risks of landslides. Led by Prof. Kyoji Sassa,
the Consortium has become a success story of international scientific cooperation at a time
when this has never been so vital.
This is especially important as the world implements the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as the Sendai Framework
for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030—adopted in Sendai, Japan, to assess global progress
on disaster risk reduction and set the priority actions.
The International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction—International Consortium on
Landslides Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 is the key outcome relating to landslides from the
3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held in Sendai. On this basis, every
member of the International Consortium of Landslides is redoubling efforts to understand,
foresee, and reduce landslide disaster risk across the world.
Led by the Consortium, the Landslide Forum is a triennial milestone event that brings
together scientists, engineers, practitioners, and policy makers from across the world—all
working in the area of landslide technology, landslide disaster investigation, and landslide
remediation. Meeting in Slovenia, the 4th Landslide Forum will explore the theme, “Landslide
Research and Risk Reduction for Advancing Culture of Living with Natural Hazards,”
focusing on the multidisciplinary implementation of the Sendai Framework to build a global
culture of resilient communities.
Against this backdrop, this report includes state-of-the-art research on landslides, inte-
grating knowledge on multiple aspects of such hazards and highlighting good practices and
recommendations on reducing risks. Today, more than ever, we need sharper research and
v
vi Foreword By Irina Bokova
stronger scientific cooperation. In this spirit, I thank all of the contributors to this publication
and I pledge UNESCO’s continuing support to deepening partnerships for innovation and
resilience in societies across the world.
Landslides are a serious geological hazard. Among the host of natural triggers are intense
rainfall, flooding, earthquakes or volcanic eruption, and coastal erosion caused by storms that
are all too often tied to the El Niño phenomenon. Human triggers including deforestation,
irrigation or pipe leakage, and mining spoil piles, or stream and ocean current alteration can
also spark landslides.
Landslides occur worldwide but certain regions are particularly susceptible. The UN’s Food
and Agriculture Organization underlines that steep terrain, vulnerable soils, heavy rainfall, and
earthquake activity make large parts of Asia highly susceptible to landslides. Other hotspots
include Central, South, and Northwestern America.
Landslides have devastating impact. They can generate tsunamis, for example. They can
bring high economic costs, although estimating losses is difficult, particularly so when it
comes to indirect losses. The latter are often confused with losses due to earthquakes or
flooding.
Globally, landslides cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and hundreds of
thousands of deaths and injuries each year. In the US alone, it has been estimated that
landslides cause in excess of US$1 billion in damages on average per year, though that is
considered a conservative figure and the real level could be at least double.
Given this, it is important to understand the science of landslides: why they occur, what
factors trigger them, the geology associated with them, and where they are likely to happen.
Geological investigations, good engineering practices, and effective enforcement of land
use management regulations can reduce landslide hazards. Early warning systems can also be
very effective, with the integration between ground-based and satellite data in landslide
mapping essential to identify landslide-prone areas.
Given that human activities can be a contributing factor in causing landslides, there are a
host of measures that can help to reduce risks, and losses if they do occur. Methods to avoid or
mitigate landslides range from better building codes and standards in engineering of new
construction and infrastructure, to better land use and proper planned alteration of drainage
patterns, as well as tackling lingering risks on old landslide sites.
Understanding the interrelationships between earth surface processes, ecological systems,
and human activities is the key to reducing landslides disaster risks.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year international agreement
adopted in March 2015, calls for more dedicated action on tackling underlying disaster risk
drivers. It points to factors such as the consequences of poverty and inequality, climate change
and variability, unplanned and rapid urbanization, poor land management, and compounding
factors such as demographic change, weak institutional arrangements, and non-risk-informed
policies. It also flags a lack of regulation and incentives for private disaster risk reduction
investment, complex supply chains, limited availability of technology, and unsustainable uses
of natural resources, declining ecosystems, pandemics and epidemics.
The Sendai Framework also calls for better risk-informed sectoral laws and regulations,
including those addressing land use and urban planning, building codes, environmental and
vii
viii Foreword By Robert Glasser
resource management and health and safety standards, and underlines that they should be
updated, where needed, to ensure an adequate focus on disaster risk management.
The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has an important role in reinforcing
a culture of prevention and preparedness in relevant stakeholders. This is done by supporting
the development of standards by experts and technical organizations, advocacy initiatives, and
the dissemination of disaster risk information, policies, and practices. UNISDR also provides
education and training on disaster risk reduction through affiliated organizations, and supports
countries, including through national platforms for disaster risk reduction or their equivalent,
in the development of national plans and monitoring trends and patterns in disaster risk, loss,
and impacts.
The International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) hosts the Sendai Partnerships 2015–
2025 for the global promotion of understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk. This is
part of 2015–2025, a voluntary commitment made at the Third UN World Conference on
Disaster Risk Reduction, held in 2015 in Sendai, Japan, where the international community
adopted the Sendai Framework.
The Sendai Partnerships will help to provide practical solutions and tools, education and
capacity building, and communication and public outreach to reduce landslides risks. As such,
they will contribute to the implementation of the goals and targets of the Sendai Framework,
particularly on understanding disaster risks including vulnerability and exposure to integrated
landslide-tsunami risk.
The work done by the Sendai Partnerships can be of value to many stakeholders including
civil protection, planning, development and transportation authorities, utility managers, agri-
cultural and forest agencies, and the scientific community.
UNISDR fully support the work of the Sendai Partnerships and the community of practice
on landslides risks, and welcomes the 4th World Landslide Forum to be held in 2017 in
Slovenia, which aims to strengthen intergovernmental networks and the international pro-
gramme on landslides.
Robert Glasser
Special Representative of the Secretary-General
for Disaster Risk Reduction and head of UNISDR
Preface
ix
x Preface
ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 was adopted at a session “Underlying risk factors” of 3rd WCDRR
in the morning of 16 March 2015 and it was signed by 16 signatory organizations in the afternoon of the
same day in Sendai, Japan. The WCDRR Conference hall was constructed in front of Sendai Castle (left)
build by Mr. Masamune Date (right) in 1601. He sent a mission of 180 people lead by Mr. Tsunenaga
Hasekura on a mission to Spain and Rome for international trade and cooperation from 1613 to 1620.
The above is the poster displayed at the preparatory meeting and also the signing ceremony.
It has the logos of ICL and ISDR, as well as the logo of the Third UN Conference on Disaster
Risk Reduction. The agreed major content is presented below.
We acknowledgee that:
• Landslide disasters are caused by exposure to hazardous motions of soil and rock that
threaten vulnerable human settlements in mountains, cities, coasts, and islands.
• Climate change will intensify the risk of landslides in some landslide-prone areas through
an increase in the frequency and/or magnitude of heavy rainfall, and shifts in the location
and periodicity of heavy rainfall.
• Developments in mountains and coastal areas, including construction of roads and railways
and expansion of urban areas due to population shifts, increase exposure to hazards of
landslides.
• Although they are not frequent, strong earthquakes have potential to trigger rapid and
long-runout landslides and liquefaction. Earthquake-induced coastal or submarine
large-scale landslides or megaslides (with depths on the order of hundreds of meters to one
thousand meters) in the ocean floor can trigger large tsunami waves. These hazardous
motions of soil and water impacting on exposed and vulnerable population can result into
very damaging effects.
• The combined effects of triggering factors, including rainfall, earthquakes, and volcanic
eruptions, can lead to greater impacts through disastrous landslides such as lahars, debris
flows, rock falls, and megaslides.
• Understanding landslide disaster risk requires a multi-hazard approach and a focus on
social and institutional vulnerability. The study of social and institutional as well as
physical vulnerability is needed to assess the extent and magnitude of landslide disasters
and to guide formulation of effective policy responses.
• Human intervention can make a greater impact on exposure and vulnerability through,
among other factors, land use and urban planning, building codes, risk assessments, early
Preface xi
warning systems, legal and policy development, integrated research, insurance, and, above
all, substantive educational and awareness-raising efforts by relevant stakeholders.
• The understanding of landslide disaster risk, including risk identification, vulnerability
assessment, time prediction, and disaster assessment, using the most up-to-date and
advanced knowledge, is a challenging task. The effectiveness of landslide disaster risk
reduction measures depends on scientific and technological developments for under-
standing disaster risk (natural hazards or events and social vulnerability), political
“buy-in”, and on increased public awareness and education.
• At a higher level, social and financial investment is vital for understanding and reducing
landslide disaster risk, in particular social and institutional vulnerability through coordi-
nation of policies, planning, research, capacity development, and the production of pub-
lications and tools that are accessible, available free of charge and are easy to use for
everyone in both developing and developed countries.
We agree on the following initial fields of cooperation in research and capacity building,
coupled with social and financial investment:
All of the items above came from the discussions of ICL and its partners. Within those
items, one of the most discussed parts are the effects of climate change on landslides. It was
mentioned in two places as a high priority. Climate changes are studied by meteorologists, but
not studied by landslide scientists and engineers. It is not easy to prove the effects of climate
change on landslides in a decisive and a quantitative way. However, all agreed, in the fol-
lowing sentence, to add “in some landslide prone areas.”
Climate change will intensify the risk of landslides in some landslide-prone areas through
an increase in the frequency and/or magnitude of heavy rainfall, and shifts in the location and
periodicity of heavy rainfall.
Figure 1 presents a comparison of extreme rainfalls in Japan of over 100 mm/day and
extreme rainfalls in Vietnam of over 51 mm/day. One is the number of days and another is the
number of events, and the monitoring period is different. However, both present an increasing
xii Preface
Fig. 1 Comparison of extreme rainfalls in Japan of over 100 mm/day and extreme rainfalls in Vietnam of over 51 mm/day. Source 1
Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) (2015) Climate Change Monitoring Report 2014. Source 2 IMHEN (Institute of Meteorology,
Hydrology and Climate Change, Vietnam) and UNDP (United Nations Development Program) (2015) Viet Nam Special Report on Managing
the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation
Fig. 2 Two examples of small-scale landslides due to extreme rainfall that destroyed human settlements at the toe of slopes in Japan and in
Vietnam. Source of Landslide distribution: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) Red circles showing the locations of the initial
small landslides are added by K. Sassa. Source of UAV photo of Ha Long landslide: Vietnamese news company “Zing. vn”
Preface xiii
trend of frequency of extreme rainfall, and the rate in Vietnam is one order higher than that in
Japan. Climate change effects will be different in countries or regions.
Figure 2 presents recent typical landslide disasters in Japan and Vietnam in 2014 and in
2015. Local heavy rainfall (the maximum rainfall was 121 mm/h, and 217 mm for 3 h)
deluged urban areas of Hiroshima city. Many small-scale shallow landslides occurred in the
mountains (shown by red circles in the left figure). As they flowed down they increased in
volume, and destroyed urban settlements and killed 66 persons in this area. A shallow
landslide triggered by heavy rainfall (the maximum rainfall was 87 mm/h, 277 mm for 5 h) in
Ha Long city and the landslide debris destroyed three houses and killed eight people as shown
in the right figure.
The ICL and signatory organizations of the Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 wish to volun-
tarily commit to the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015–2030 and the United
Nations Sustainable Development Goals No.11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive,
safe, resilient and sustainable.”
The successful result of each item proposed in the Sendai Partnership cannot be achieved
without close cooperation with the signatory organizations and other related organizations. In
order to plan the milestones of the Sendai Partnership, ICL and Sendai Partnership groups are
organizing a High-Level Panel Discussion on May 30, 2017 as a Plenary session of the Fourth
World Landslide Forum in Ljubljana, Slovenia:
High-Level Panel Discussion “Strengthening Intergovernmental Network and the
International Programme on Landslides (IPL) for “ISDR-ICL SENDAI PARTNERSHIPS
2015–2025 for global promotion of understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk”
Objectives: The International Programme on Landslides (IPL) is a programme of the
International Consortium on Landslides (ICL). ICL proposed the IPL in a thematic session
of the Second World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe, 2005. The
activities of IPL were defined in the 2006 Tokyo Action Plan “Strengthening research and
learning on landslides and related earth system disasters for global risk preparedness” at the
Round Table Discussion held in Tokyo, 2006. IPL was supported by seven global stake-
holders—UNESCO, WMO, FAO, UNISDR, UNU, ICSU, and WFEO, and ICL exchanged
Memorandums of Understanding to promote the Tokyo Action Plan with each of them in
2006.
The activities of IPL include the triennial organization of the World Landslide Forum, the
implementation of various IPL Projects, identification of World Centres of Excellence on
Landslide Risk Reduction (WCoE), and the publication of the ICL bimonthly journal Land-
slides. Based on this background, ICL proposed the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–
2025 for global promotion of understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk at the 3rd
WCDRR in Sendai, 2015 which was accepted and signed by 17 global and national stake-
holders, including the governments of Croatia, Italy and Japan. This high-level panel dis-
cussion aims to strengthen networking with governments in landslide-prone countries and
governments supporting landslide disaster risk reduction efforts in developing countries. The
close cooperation within governments, United Nation Organizations and International NGOs
is necessary and effective to implement the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 and the
International Programme on Landslides (IPL) in its infrastructure.
Following the discussion result in the high-level panel discussion, a Round Table Dis-
cussion on the follow-up of the high-level panel discussion and implementation planning
will be held at 13:30–17:30 on May 31, 2017 at Club CD as a parallel session. Representatives
of 17 signatory organizations, ICL-IPL members, and potential new members of the Sendai
Partnerships are invited. All participants will examine an action plan/road map/Addendum to
xiv Preface
the Partnerships to implement and further develop the Sendai Partnerships, effectively con-
tributing to the SENDAI Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. At the end of the session,
signing to the Sendai Partnerships by new members may be organized. To strengthen the
Sendai Partnerships cooperation network, we wish to invite new signatory organizations and
also the new members of ICL. Those organizations are invited to the high-level panel dis-
cussion and also the round-table discussion.
The WLF4 will publish five volumes of books. Volumes 2–5 are the proceedings of
technical papers presented at the forum. Volume 1 includes Part 1 ISDR-ICL Sendai
Partnerships: (1) three forum lectures (Rupestrian world heritage sites at landslide risk,
Subaerial landslide-generated (tsunami) waves, Rock fall occurrence and fragmentation) to
present leading landslide issues, (2) Contribution of signatory organizations to provide basic
information for the high-level panel discussion, (3) a planning initiative from ICL to Sendai
Partnerships to create “Landslide Dynamics-ISDR-ICL Landslide Interactive Teaching Tools
(LITT)” to broaden the availability of landslide technologies for landslide risk reduction for
capacity development, and to examine the initial stage of “ICL World Report on Landslides”
to share landslide information and technologies within WRL contributors and users. Part 2
International Programme on Landslides (IPL) is a programme of ICL contributing to ISDR
with support from seven global stakeholders. IPL consists of IPL projects proposed and
implemented by ICL member organizations, and the activities of World Centres of Excellence
on Landslide Risk Reduction (WCoEs), which are updated at the triannual world landslide
forum. Part 3 includes papers from the Session 3 Landslides and Society.
Vol. 1 Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 will be published initially as a free online access
book and then as a printed book distributed to all participants in the Fourth World Landslide
Forum. We would like to ask the readers of this volume to join this voluntary commitment to
the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Such support shall promote and enable the
realization of many of the difficult tasks proposed in the Sendai Partnerships.
ICL acknowledges the dedicated support from ICL’s many supporting organizations and
cooperating individuals for the International Programme on Landslides (IPL) including the
editing and publication of an international journal “Landslides: Journal of International
Consortium on Landslides,” and we request further support for ICL and IPL and the activities
of the Sendai Partnerships. Those organizations and individuals are invited to the Fourth
World Landslide Forum and the high-level panel discussion on May 30, 2017 and the
round-table discussion to follow on May 31, 2017, to join this global initiative 2015–2025.
Information on the Fourth World Landslide Forum is uploaded at the WLF4 website: https://
www.wlf4.org/. Inquiries and cooperation for the Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 should be
addressed to the ICL Secretariat [email protected].
References
Sassa K (2015) ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 for global promotion of understanding and reducing
landslide disaster risk. Landslides, Vol 12 (4), pp 631–640
Sassa K, Yin Y and Canuti P (2015) The third world landslide forum, Beijing, China. Landslides, Vol 12 (1),
pp 177–192
Wahlström M (2015) Preface. Landslides, Vol 12 (4), pp 629
Preface xv
University of Ljubljana
xvii
xviii Organizers
Co-organizers
Organizing Committee
Honorary Chairpersons
Chairpersons
Matjaž Mikoš, Chairman, Slovenian National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction
Yueping Yin, President, International Consortium on Landslides
Kyoji Sassa, Executive Director, International Consortium on Landslides
xxiii
xxiv Contents
Kyoji Sassa
Abstract
The International Consortium on Landslides proposed the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships
2015–2025 for global promotion of understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk at
the session “Underlying risk factors” of the Third United Nations World Conference on
Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in the morning of 16 March 2015, in Sendai, Japan.
The proposal was accepted and signed by 16 United Nations, international and national
organizations in the afternoon of the same day in a Japanese restaurant “Junsei”, Sendai,
Japan. This article describes the background and content of the Partnerships including
example of major landslide disaster in the world with the full text of the partnerships and
the list of signatory organizations.
Keywords
Landslides International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) International Strategy for
Disaster Risk Reduction (ISDR) World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction
(WCDRR)
in many countries. Both the number and frequency of earth flows, rock falls, rock toppling and other types of
small-scale landslides are some order of magnitude higher very slow to very rapid movements of rock, debris or soils,
than that of large-scale landslides. To achieve the UN Sus- the Landslide Handbook—A Guide to Understanding
tainable Development Goals No. 11 “Make cities and human Landslides was edited as an International Programme on
settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, disas- Landslides IPL 106 Best Practice handbook for landslide
ter reduction should be fostered by “the development of hazard mitigation (2002–2007), and it was published by U.
people-centered early warning technology for landslides S. Geological Survey in 2008. This handbook with many
with increased precision and reliable prediction both in time illustration and photographs, has been translated and pub-
and location, especially in a changing climate context” (from lished in Portuguese and Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese.
the Sendai Partnership Resolution) and by applying it to This project received the IPL Award for Success at the 2nd
rural areas as well as urban areas. World Landslide Forum at the Food and Agriculture
Unfortunately, small-scale landslides occur in many pla- Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in
ces and so frequently that they are neither remarked nor Rome, Italy.
recorded, in contrast with the cases of earthquakes, volcanic As a contribution to the Sendai Partnerships, ICL are
eruptions, and typhoons/hurricanes. However, big landslide editing the Landslide Dynamics: ISDR-ICL Landslide
disasters are reported and may be found in Wikipedia or Interactive Teaching Tools (LITT) (two volumes of around
other sources on the internet. 1600 pages) for capacity development necessary as a key
Definition of landslides have varied around the world. component of Sendai Partnerships. The revised landslide
As a voluntary commitment to the International Decade of handbook “Landslide types: Description, illustration and
Natural Disaster Reduction (1990–2000), the landslide- photos” including more illustrations and photos and
related communities in the International Geotechnical “Landslide Dynamics for risk reduction” for the assessment
Societies and UNESCO established a working party for the of landslide initiation and motion are written and included as
World Landslide Inventory to establish a definition of the fundamental part of the Landslide Interactive Teaching
landslides. The discussed result was published in “Land- Tools (LITT), which is introduced in this volume.
slide Types and Processes” by David Cruden and David Landslide researchers know major landslide disasters, and
Varnes in Landslides—Investigation and Mitigation, showing some examples to scientists, engineers, and policy
Transportation Research Board, US National Research makers who are partly involved to landslide risk reduction
Council in 1996. In order to disseminate this new definition efforts is useful. Table 1 presents an outline of major land-
and classification of landslides, including debris flows, slide disasters in the world.
Table 1 (continued)
No Date Place Casualties
19 9 August 2009 Kaohsiung,Taiwan 500–600
20 8 August 2010 Gansu, China 1287
21 11 January 2011 Rio de Janeiro. Brazil >1.000
22 16 June 2013 Uttarakhand, India 5700
23 02 May 2014 Badakhshan, Afghanistan 500
24 1 October 2015 El Cambray Dos. Guatemala 220
Examples of Large-Scale Landslides and Their The author investigated (1) Mayuyama landslide-tsunami
Disasters Around the World disaster, (7) Las Colinas earthquake-induced landslide,
(8) Leyte rainfall + earthquake induced landslide, and
Photos and summary information is presented on several (12) Potential landslides in Machu Picchu. The author vis-
large-scale landslides in which the depth of the sliding sur- ited (2) Vajont landslide, (5) Salerno landslides-debris flows,
faces are the order of 10 to 100 meters. Those differ from (11) Usoy earthquake-induced landslide and the
small-scale shallow landslides, in which the depth of sliding landslide-dammed Lake Sarez. The author did not visit
surfaces of the initial landslides are a few meters (as pre- (3) Huascaran debris avalanche, (4) Nevado del Ruiz debris
sented in the Preface) (Fig. 1). flow, (6) Vargas debris flow, (9) Uttarakhand landslide-
Fig. 1 a Mayuyama Landslide was triggered on the Unzen volcano on January 13, 2001 in Las Colinas, El Salvador. The landslide mass c
by a nearby earthquake on 21 May 1792. The landslide mass moved travelled through a densely populated urban area and killed 500–1700
into the Ariake Sea and triggered a tsunami wave. The landslide and people h Accumulated rainfall of 674 mm from 8 to 17 February 2006
the landslide-induced tsunami killed 15,153 people. It was the largest hit Guinsaugon, Leyte, Philippine. A very small earthquake (Ms 2.6)
landslide disaster and the largest volcanic disaster in Japan. Left top is then occurred on 17 February 2006. This small earthquake after the
a Google photo of the landslide. Left bottom is the landslide long rainfall triggered a large-scale rapid landslide in volcano-clastic
cross-section. Right bottom shows the reproduction of the landslide debris that killed more than 1144 people. Source Landslides Vol. 7(3),
and the resulting tsunami wave, using computer simulations of the 2010) i Heavy rainfall from 14 to 17 June 2013 struck the Indian state
landslide and the tsunami (Sources Landslides Vol. 11(5) 2014 Vol. 13 of Uttarakhand. This heavy rainfall caused snow melting of a glacier,
(6), 2016) b Vajont landslide was triggered by water-level changes in a triggered landslides and led to floods. The death toll was 5700 people.
dam reservoir on 9 October 1963. A large-scale rapid landslide mass j Mudslides occurred on 2 May 2014 in Badakhshan, Afghanistan.
entered into the reservoir of the Vajoint dam. The water in the reservoir A week before the mudslides, there had been torrential rain. The
overflowed over the dam and wiped out a community along the river. sliding mass flowed over a settlement and killed around 500 people.
Left photo shows the landslide mass fill in the dam reservoir. Right two Source Wikipedia k The Usoy landslide is a very large landslide, with
photos show the community of Longarone village, Italy before and a depth of 700 m, which was triggered by an earthquake in 1911. The
after the landslide and flood. The village disappeared and around 2000 landslide mass blocked the river, forming a landslide dam lake called
people were killed. c Nevados Huascaran debris avalanche was Lake Sarez. The water level of this lake has continued to increase and
triggered by an earthquake on 31 May 1970 in Peru. The rapidly is currently near the top of the landslide dam (height is 567 m).
moving large-scale landslide mass destroyed the town of Yungay and Top-left is an air photo of the Usoy landslide dam and Lake Sarez, and
killed around 18,000 people. Left photo is an air photo showing the bottom-left shows a wide area satellite photo. Lower right is a ground
source of landslide and the debris covering the Yungay town. Right photo of the landslide dam and the lake. Top right is a record of the
photos show that nothing remained of Yungay town. d A large-scale increasing water level since 1940. This landslide dam is threatened by
landslide-debris flow was triggered by the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz further gradual increases in water level and also landslide-induced
volcano on 13 November 1985 in Columbia. The resulting volcanic tsunami, which may be triggered by a landslide from the slopes along
debris flow destroyed the town of Armero in Tolima, Columbia, killing the shore of the dam lake (Source Science Vol. 326, 2009). l The Inca
20,000–23,000 people. The map on the top left shows the debris flow World Heritage site at Machu Picchu shows signs of potential
path and volcanic hazard zones of nearby areas. All three photos show landslides. Left-top shows the Machu Picchu citadel constructed on the
the town after the disaster. e A group of many small landslides were sliding surface of a big landslide between two peaks of Huayna Picchu
triggered by heavy rainfall in Salerno, Italy on 5 May 1998. This is a and Machu Picchu. The sliding surface and another potential sliding
similar type of disaster to the 2014 Hiroshima landslide disaster surface (yellow) are along gently dipping shear bands. Close up photos
introduced in the Preface. Initial small and shallow landslides moved of the shear bands are in (b) and (c). Left-bottom is the movement
debris down to the lower slope and torrents increased the flow in record of an extensometer installed in the lower slope of Machu Picchu
volume, overwhelming the urban settlement. 280 persons were killed citadel. Right figure shows ground radar investigation along a part of
in Salerno town. f A storm on December 14–16, 1999 struck the State the red dotted line. It suggested the Plaza (flat area) was formed by
of Vargas along the Caribbean Sea in Venezuela. It triggered filling a crack (it might be a head scarp of the potential retrogressive
thousands of landslides and large-scale debris flows that killed landslide). Sources Proc. 1st World Landslide Forum
10,000–30,000 persons. g An earthquake triggered a rapid landslide
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THE BOBO RAPIDS.
“The Sultan of the French greets you, the chief of the Sudan
greets you, etc. We come from Timbuktu. We passed peacefully
everywhere. We are now tired, the river is low, and in conformity with
the conventions you have made with the French we have come to
demand your hospitality that we may rest and repair the damage
done to our boats by the rocks. We also want a courier to go and tell
our relations at Bandiagara that we have arrived here safely. All we
need to support us during our stay will be paid for at prices agreed
on beforehand between us. Lastly, I wish to go and see Ibrahim
Galadjo, your friend and ours.”
“Impossible,” replied Modibo. “Galadjo is not now at his capital, he
is collecting a column; besides, you will not have time for the journey
to him.”
“Why not, pray?”
“Because you, like those who have preceded you, must not stop
here more than four or five days longer. That is the custom of the
country.”
If I still cherished any illusions this speech finally dispersed them.
The groups about the chief moreover left me in no doubt as to his
sentiments, or as to whom we had to thank for those sentiments.
The Toucouleurs grinned, and waved their muskets above their
heads in a hostile manner. Abdu alone tried to speak on our behalf,
but Modibo ordered him to be silent, and the cadi joined in the
chorus against us. A griot then began a song, the few words of which
I caught were certainly not in our praise. Everything seemed to be
going wrong.
What was I to do? As I had said, we were all tired out, the river
was half dried up, the boats were terribly knocked about. Still it was
not altogether impossible to go, for after leading the life of the
Wandering Jew for so long, a little more or less travelling could not
matter much. We might perhaps have managed to do another fifty
miles or so, and try to find rest in a more hospitable district, where
we could pass the rainy season not so very far from Bussa, which
was to be our final goal.
One thing decided me to act as I did, and I can at least claim that I
made up my mind quickly. I was determined to fulfil to the letter, with
true military obedience, the last instructions I had received before
starting. These were my instructions—
“Bamako de Saint-Louis, Number 5074. Received on November
23, at half-past four in the afternoon—Will arrange for you to receive
supplementary instructions at Say. In case unforeseen
circumstances prevent those instructions being there before your
arrival, wait for them.”
This, as will be observed, is clear and precise enough. Of course
such orders would not have been sent but for the ignorance in
France of the state of things at Say. They would otherwise have
been simply ridiculous. However, an order cannot be considered
binding unless he who gives that order understands exactly what will
be the position when he receives it, of the person to whom it is sent,
and who is expected to execute it.
Still those instructions might arrive; rarely had such a thing
happened in French colonial policy, but it was just possible that our
presence at Say was part of a plan of operations at the mouth of the
Niger or in Dahomey. I need hardly add that it turned out not to be
so, but I was quite justified in my idea that it might have been, and in
any case I had no right to conclude to the contrary.
So I decided in spite of everything and everybody to remain.
Oh, if we had but started a little earlier; if M. Grodet had not
stopped us and kept us in the Sudan as he did! If we could but have
joined the Decœur-Baud, or even the Toutée expedition at Say, how
different everything would have been!
If only the promised instructions had really been sent us, as they
could have been, had any one wanted to send them! If only a small
column either from Dahomey or from Bandiagara had, as it might so
easily have been, commissioned to bring us those instructions, I am
convinced that Amadu Saturu would at this moment be a fugitive like
Amadu Cheiku, and that the Niger districts near Say would be
purged from the presence of slave-dealers. For all these robbers of
men, who are as cowardly as they are cruel and dishonest, would
have fled at the first rumour of an advance of the French upon their
haunts.
It ought to have been otherwise, that is all. It is not the time for
recrimination, but I shall count myself fortunate if what happened to
me serves as an example to others, and prevents the sending out of
expeditions only to abandon them to their fate, without instructions,
in the heart of Africa. For, as a rule, these expeditions seem to be
completely forgotten until the news arrives that they have managed
to get back to civilized districts after a struggle more glorious than
fruitful of results, or that, as sometimes happens, all the white men
have perished somewhere amongst the blacks.
To decide to remain at Say was, however, one thing, to be able to
do so was another.
There were just twenty-nine of us, five white men and twenty-four
black, with three children, the servants of Bluzet, Father Hacquart
and Taburet, and the Toucouleur Suleyman, on whom, by the way,
we did not feel we could altogether rely, a small party truly against
the 500 warriors of Amadu and his Toucouleurs or Foutankés, as
they are often called, not to speak of the people of Say and all who
were more or less dependent on Modibo.
I sometimes play, as no doubt my readers do too, at the game
called poker.
We all know that skill consists in making your adversary believe
when you have a bad hand that you have a very good one. This is
what is known as bluff. To make up for my purse having sometimes
suffered in this American game, it put me up to a dodge or two in
politics, notably on the present occasion.
CANOES AT SAY.
STAY AT SAY
Our island was quite deserted by the natives, for though the
people of Talibia grew millet on it before our arrival, they would never
live on it, or even sleep on it for one night, for it had a very bad
reputation, and was supposed to be haunted by devils, horrible
devils, who took the form of big fantastic-looking monkeys, and after
sunset climbed upon the ant-hills and held a fiendish sabbat.
Without calling in the aid of the supernatural to account for it,
there is no doubt that people belated on the left bank were never
seen again. Perhaps they are taken captive by the robber
Djermankobes, or fall victims to lions or hyænas.
However that may be, the Talibia devils, as were those of Wuro
and Geba later, were propitious to us. All these spirits, whether of
Kolikoro, of Debo, or of Pontoise, are really cousins-german. Ours
were the spirits of the Niger, and the negroes explained our immunity
from their attacks by saying, “They can do nothing against an
expedition, the leader of which is the friend of Somanguru, the great
demon of Kolikoro, and who knows the river at its source, where it
comes out of the earth, where no one else has ever seen it.”
I imagine that since our departure the natives of Talibia have still
avoided the island. Our residence on it was not enough to
rehabilitate it, and probably now many rumours are current about the
spirit which haunts the ruins of our camp.
It was really a great thing to be on an island. We were safe there
from hyænas at least, and all we had to do was to put our camp in a
state of defence against the Toucouleurs and their friends.
The first fortification we put up was a moral one, for we baptized
our camp Fort Archinard, in token of our gratitude to the Colonel of
that name, and it was worth many an abattis. The name of Archinard
was in fact a kind of double fetich, for it gave confidence to our own
men, and it inspired the Toucouleurs with superstitious terror. In the
French Sudan there is not a marabout, a soldier, or a sofa of
Samory, not a talibé of Amadu, not a friend nor an enemy of the
French who does not retain deeply graven upon his memory the
name of Colonel Archinard, for the present General will always be
the Colonel in Africa, the great Colonel whom, according to tradition,
no village ever resisted for a whole day.
So we managed that the news of the baptism of our Camp should
be spread far and near, and passed on from mouth to mouth till it
reached the ear of Amadu himself. No doubt he had some bad
dreams in consequence.
This moral defence, however, required to be supplemented by a
material one. Two hundred and twenty by forty-three yards is not a
very wide area for thirty-five people to live in, but it is far too big a
space to have to defend efficiently.
We felt it would be prudent to restrict the camp, properly so called,
to the northern point of the island, and taking six termitaries as points
of support, we placed abattis between them. Everything was ready to
our hands, branches, logs, brushwood, thorns, etc. We cut down the
trees at the lower end of the island, which cleared our firing range,
though it also rather spoiled the look of the landscape. We levelled
the site of our camp, razed many of the ant-hills to the ground, and
mounted our two guns, one pointing up-stream, on a huge trunk
which seemed to have been placed where it was on purpose, which
commanded the bank almost as far as Say itself, whilst the other
was placed on a big trunk which we drove firmly into the ground, and
would keep the people on the banks down-stream in awe. At each
gun sentries were always on guard. Then the unfortunate Aube was
unloaded, patched up somehow, provided with sixteen oars, and
armed with the machine-gun belonging to the Davoust, all ready to
advance to the attack or the defence whether to Say or to Dunga.
In a word, the urgent preliminary work was rapidly accomplished
in a very few days, and then in comparative security we began
building what the natives call the tata, that is to say, an earthwork
such as surrounds sedentary villages, or a fortified redoubt serving
as the residence of a chief.
Even if you had not been brought up a mason, you would very
soon become one in the Sudan; at least you will learn to build as the
negroes do. There are neither stones, lime, nor sand, nothing but
water and more or less argillaceous soil. With that you must make
bricks, mortar, and the mixture for graining, if graining you mean to
have. The clay is kneaded with the feet, and when it is ready, what
are called tufas are made of it, that is to say, flat or cylindrical bricks,
which the mason or baré places horizontally between two layers of
mortar. The baré sits astride on the wall he is building and chants the
same tune over and over again, whilst his assistants silently pass up
the tufas to him. I have noticed that all over the world masons and
tile-makers are as light-hearted as birds.
Our best mason in this case was a big Sarracolais named Samba
Demba, who generally acted as groom to our bicycle Suzanne.
When he was at work on the wall it grew apace, and we too grew
gay as we saw it rise, for with it increased our sense of security.
When the building went on well, we felt that everything else would
go well too.
Our tata was a triangular wall, each of the three sides being from
about eleven to sixteen yards long. It was thick enough to protect us
from treacherous shots from old-fashioned rifles, and indeed also
from the quick-firing weapons which the English had sold some time
ago to our enemy Samory. At a height of about six feet and a half
some forty loopholes were made, distributed about equally over the
three sides of the triangle formed by our wall. Inside, the walls were
supported by buttresses about three feet thick, which served alike as
seats and places in which to store our ammunition. The building
seemed likely to last well unless it should be disintegrated and
washed away in a tornado some day; breaches will of course be
made in it, parts of it will fall, but I expect, for a long time hence, its
ruins will bear witness to the stay here of the French expedition, and
to our effective occupation of the site.
FORT ARCHINARD.