Management of Slope Stability in Saint Lucia
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Issue #12 December 2012 Destruction of a house caused by a rainfall-triggered landslide in an urban community - Castries, Saint Lucia. Management of Slope Stability in highlights Communities (MoSSaiC) in Saint Lucia The Challenge: affected by heavy rains and hurricanes. Even “everyday” Reducing Landslide Risk low magnitude rainfall events can trigger devastating landslides. For the city’s inhabitants, this has meant In many developing countries, landslide risk is frequent loss of property and livelihoods, and even increasing as unauthorized housing is built on already loss of lives. As with any disaster risk, this also means landslide prone hillslopes surrounding urban areas. that the island is constantly under threat of reversing This risk accumulation is driven by growing population, whatever economic progress and improvements to increasing urbanization, and poor and unplanned livelihoods it has made. Yet, by taking a community- housing settlements, which result in increased slope based approach to landslide risk management, Saint instability for the most vulnerable populations. In Lucia has shown that even extreme rainfall events, addition, the combination of steep topography of such as Hurricane Tomas in October 2010, can be volcanic islands in the Eastern Caribbean and the weathered by urban hillside communities. climate patterns of heavy rains and frequent cyclonic Saint Lucia’s success in addressing landslide haz- activity, are also natural conditions contributing to the ards in urban communities is a result of the innova- high level of landslide risks. tive and solution-oriented engagement of community members, landslide researchers, and government prac- The Project: titioners and policy-makers. The Management of Slope Community-Based Risk Reduction Stability in Communities (MoSSaiC) approach was es- tablished by researchers from the University of Bristol The Caribbean island of Saint Lucia is a success story committed to providing a community-based and scien- in the long-running efforts to mitigate disaster risk tific approach for delivering landslide hazard reduction since the government began introducing low-cost measures on the ground. Following a successful pilot community-based interventions for vulnerable hillside study in 2004, the government of Saint Lucia funded Project communities. Castries, the capital of Saint Lucia, is the MoSSaiC projects in five vulnerable communities in most populated city and surrounded by mountainous which the community members became the lead project topography and is inhabited by populations commonly managers to reduce their landslide risk. www.worldbank.org/lcrdrm www.gfdrr.org Research, development, and implementation continued ground, and an evidence base demonstrating that such an with the support of government agencies, international investment both pays and works. development partners, and in close collaboration with the MoSSaiC is science-based: World Bank’s Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Team. Under ■■ Localized physical causes (often poor drainage) the World Bank-sponsored Second Disaster Management of landslide hazard are identified. highlights Project, the government and project committee identified ■■ Appropriate mitigation measures are designed six more vulnerable communities to implement the MoSSaiC approach. Each of the communities received technical, to address these causes. financial and project management support to install drainage ■■ Scientific methods are used to justify solutions. systems, rainwater harvesting techniques and catchments to divert rainfall from saturating the soil and foundations to MoSSaiC is community-based: homes that instigate landslides. ■■ Community residents are engaged in identifying landslide MoSSaiC continues to work with the World Bank and risk causes and solutions. Project communities to develop a handbook and online resources to ■■ Contractors and workers from the community are make the approach more widely available and useful to the employed in constructing drainage solutions. general population and related ministries. The Global Facility ■■ Government managers and practitioners form teams with for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is financing the the necessary expertise to work with communities and production, publication and dissemination of these materials, deliver mitigation measures. which are expected in early 2013. ■■ The vision is shared and championed in communities and by governments. An Innovative Approach to Landslide MoSSaiC is evidence-based: Hazards ■■ Appropriate physical works are delivered to reduce Current policies for landslide risk reduction often focus on landslide hazard. vulnerability reduction without always investigating ways ■■ MoSSaiC design standards and trainings are used to to address the landslide hazard. The MoSSaiC approach maintain rigorous and effective quality. explicitly addresses landslide hazard reduction. It is based on the MoSSaiC vision that (i) disaster risk management pays, Communities Tackle the Causes (ii) engaging existing government expertise for risk reduction of Landslide Risk can build capacity, embed good practice and change policy, and (iii) ensuring community engagement from start to finish MoSSaiC is designed to address a very significant subset of can enable community ownership of solutions. The MoSSaiC landslide types: rotational and translational slides in soils approach aims to lay sustainable foundations for community- that are principally triggered by rainfall, but which are ex- based landslide risk reduction. These foundations are a acerbated by rapid urbanization. Often, the most socioeco- scientific base for reducing landslide hazard, a community- nomically vulnerable inhabit these landslide-prone slopes— based approach for delivery of mitigation measures on the thus increasing their exposure to landslide hazards and SCIENCE-BASIS COMMUNITY-BASIS Slope mapping of landslide hazard factors: Assessment of each landslide hazard: • local slope geometry and surface drainage • type, likelihood, location & magnitude • soils and geology • dominant landslide causes • surface cover and loading Community: Slope mapping of exposure and vulnerability factors: Assessment of vulnerability to each landslide • leaders • local slope geometry and surface drainage hazard: • organizations • soils and geology • potential losses due to each landslide • residents • surface cover and loading • behavioural change • contractors Government: Landslide risk for each community (hazard, exposure and vulnerability) Landslide risk • management management: • experts • prioritise communities • technicians • design landslide hazard reduction interventions • practitioners EVIDENCE-BASIS Implement hazard reduction measures: Evaluate inputs and outcomes: • community engagement • technical/physical effectiveness • construction • cost-effectiveness • maintenance • behavioural change The MoSSaiC Architecture: A holistic structure combining the three core scientific, community, and evidence components. 2 highlights Project Typical urban hillside community in Saint Lucia. Discussing the surface water and slope stability issues and potential drainage solutions at a community meeting. sometimes increasing the hazard itself. MoSSaiC focuses on totaling over 50 centimeters in just 24 hours. However, none the most economically, socially, and physically vulnerable of of the vulnerable hillside communities that implemented these urban hillside communities. MoSSaiC interventions experienced any landslides at all. Before During the initial project steps, community residents and the intervention, those same community slopes had frequently government technical teams create detailed maps of slope fea- shown signs of instability, even during much lower magnitude tures such as previous landslides and altered slope geometry rainfall events of less than 10 centimeters in 24 hours. (cut and fill), loading (buildings), drainage, and vegetation. En- gineering judgment and scientific tools are used to interpret Cost-benefit – ‘it pays’ the effect of such features on slope stability and confirm local landslide causes. Typically, the dominant instability mecha- Governments and donors agree that disaster mitigation is a nism in these densely constructed communities is infiltration good idea, but the question always remains ‘does it pay?’ This of rainfall and household water into slope material. Based on answer requires evidence of the likely returns on investments that information, drains are designed to intercept overland made in the communities. A particular challenge in assess- flow of rainfall and capture household water (roof water and ing the direct benefits of disaster risk management lies in the grey water), thus reducing landslide hazard. Finally, these pub- fact that such benefits occur in the future as avoided costs, lic works are bid out to local contractors in the community. rather than as a continual flow of positive benefits. It is there- MoSSaiC’s activities engage community participation in fore vital that economic appraisal of landslide risk reduction a holistic approach in every step of the project including plan- projects be carried out, not only as a means of ensuring effec- ning, executing, and maintaining surface water management tiveness, but also in order to build a case for low-cost, high- on high-risk slopes. Contractors and workers are from the benefit landslide risk mitigation. communities and trained on MoSSaiC design standards. They To start to build such an evidence base, a pilot cost-benefit