The rising cost of landslides: Protecting communities in an era of extreme weather

Landslides are a growing threat, even in communities where they are rare. Their frequency is rising because of worsening soil stability, urbanization, pollution, and many other influences. Extreme weather is another factor, uprooting even the most robust soil structures. What are the social and financial costs of neglecting landslide mitigation, and how can communities establish infrastructure resilience against them?

The escalating economic and social costs of landslides

Climate change disasters like increased landslides are trickling into society, manifesting as structural, financial, and social degradation. Recent data shows that their frequency has increased in the last several years across the United States. Maps reveal that almost 44% of the nation is likely to experience a landslide soon, catalyzing risk mitigation.

The economic damage is felt worldwide. Events like landslides, alongside earthquakes and floods, have a financial impact of over $2.3 trillion today. Experts suggest that the numbers have been historically underestimated, with Micronesia and North America being among the most affected.

Unfortunately, these events disproportionately affect vulnerable communities of marginalized populations. It also impacts those in rural areas, as they often have limited access to emergency services and climate adaptation technologies. Leaders in these areas may have few resources to protect citizens as effectively as they would like, requiring outside help.

For example, low-income populations, particularly in tropical regions, often reside on hillsides. Poverty is common, limiting access to technological aids that could help predict disasters. Researchers are currently constructing digital modeling tools to help individuals in areas with high landslide risk.

How climate change and extreme weather increase landslides

Image: Unsplash.

The climate crisis worsens landslide intensity in several ways. Anthropogenic influences, such as mass urbanization and resource exploitation, including clear-cutting forests, have stripped soils of the nutrients they need to remain stable and retain water. This inhibits the Earth’s ability to absorb moisture and grow healthy ecosystems. 

It also saps the ground’s strength, destabilizing it from slopes. Combine this with more intense rainfall and snowfall, and the weight and force cause more damaging disasters. Mudslides are another concern, signaling issues with water management in addition to soil integrity.

Other climate influences have led to an increase in extreme weather events. Erratic temperatures, particularly extreme heat, have altered rain cycles, leading to more intense downpours and excess evaporation simultaneously. Other severe weather, like wildfires and floods, directly correlate with landslide frequency and intensity. 

Recent advancements in landslide mitigation and prediction

Data-driven technologies could produce insights that prevent some of these landslides. These are the most prominent and influential methods and tools being used by experts today:

• Remote sensing: Using sensors to oversee soil health and movement patterns

• Artificial intelligence: Leveraging machine learning algorithms to collect data and see patterns in land behavior

• Geoengineering: Manually modifying the land to prevent landslide occurrence, such as leveling steep angles

• Open-access hazard mapping: Creating visualizations that show a geography’s susceptibility to landslides, informing goals and prevention prioritization

• Structural enhancements: Building fixtures like retaining walls — sometimes with vegetation — to capture falling debris

• Infrastructure advancements: Enhancing water management to improve drainage systems and reduce pressure on landslide-prone areas

Mapping high-risk zones is crucial for prioritizing the people most affected by increased landslides. This includes the progressively growing populations in mountain-based communities, which may experience slow-moving landslides.

Community-based solutions for infrastructure resilience

Citizens have immense influence on how well their towns are secured. Engagement is the basis of success. Neighbors, nonprofits, and community groups must collaborate to establish protocols, like early warning systems and resource allocation. While emergency services can assist with these activities, households can use the strategies if help is delayed or unavailable in a major emergency. 

Installing nature-based solutions is another way communities can make a difference. Seemingly small actions, such as planting trees to reforest an area, can help defend the perimeter against an encroaching landslide. Smart grading and trenching can also capture runoff or drainage from the event before it hits households and businesses.

Additionally, prospective builders can choose properties laden with hard earth. The strength and texture of this material are better for holding significant weight and resisting landslides and floods. The foresight will make buildings more likely to withstand ground instability in the future. Long-term consideration like this will slowly improve an area’s defenses over time.

The importance of governmental and private investments

Image: Unsplash. 

Public-private partnerships are the primary means of continually funding and issuing infrastructure investments. While households can reinforce properties, governments and organizations decide what happens to the surrounding area. 

Techniques like geostabilization require heavy machinery and expertise for activities, such as installing soil nails. To establish structural integrity, nails must have the correct design based on the ground conditions, including length and diameter.

Policymakers are essential pieces of the puzzle. They can help ensure soil nail systems are installed appropriately, for instance, making them vital in establishing land-use policies, which determine how businesses and households care for the land they use. Creating frameworks that change how people and companies interact with their properties will reinforce more eco-conscious behaviors. 

Removing adverse anthropogenic influences on soil degradation will make land more resilient. Rules can include guidance such as:

• Restricting development in certain areas.

• Researching erosion control measures.

• Executing inspections and surveys of mountains, hills and cliffsides.

• Investing in greater public education about landslide prevention.

• Minimizing the use of nonporous materials in construction that encourage runoff.

• Requiring retaining structures in prone regions.

Additionally, policymakers can collaborate with international leaders to create evidence-based frameworks and funding opportunities to help the most affected communities. This approach embeds social justice as part of climate adaptation initiatives, which provides a more comprehensive solution to the climate crisis.

Investing in landscape prevention and preparedness 

Climate change disasters and industrial shifts are making the Earth less stable. The evidence is overwhelming, and the future will only have more headlines regarding unexpected landslide incidents unless communities prioritize resilience. Everyone must spread awareness of these occurrences to instigate productive conversations on building resistance against them — it is the driver of change.

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