Landslides an overlooked killer: UN

TOKYO – Climate change and unchecked urbanisation are worsening the threat from landslides, an overlooked killer that could be limited with better planning, experts say.

Landslides pose risks for some of the world’s most cherished cultural sites including Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca ruins perched in the Andes mountains of Peru, researchers said at the start of an international conference here this week. While natural disasters strike without warning, more advanced prediction of landslides, discouraging development in risky areas, and evacuating people at imminent risk, could all save lives.”There are a number of high-profile killers which are quite well-known such as earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes.What is much less known is that the killing mechanism in these events is frequently the subsequent landslides,” said Janos Bogardi, director of the United Nations Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn.Recent extreme weather, such as a record hurricane season in 2005, softens the soil and increases vulnerability to landslides, Bogardi said.Climate change has been seen as a possible culprit for a landslide last month in Yemen that killed 65 people, as temperature changes shifted boulders.But the sprawling expansion of cities in the developing world is putting more people in the path of landslides, particularly in Latin America where “favela” shantytowns dot suburban slopes.- Nampa-AFPWhile natural disasters strike without warning, more advanced prediction of landslides, discouraging development in risky areas, and evacuating people at imminent risk, could all save lives.”There are a number of high-profile killers which are quite well-known such as earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes.What is much less known is that the killing mechanism in these events is frequently the subsequent landslides,” said Janos Bogardi, director of the United Nations Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn.Recent extreme weather, such as a record hurricane season in 2005, softens the soil and increases vulnerability to landslides, Bogardi said.Climate change has been seen as a possible culprit for a landslide last month in Yemen that killed 65 people, as temperature changes shifted boulders.But the sprawling expansion of cities in the developing world is putting more people in the path of landslides, particularly in Latin America where “favela” shantytowns dot suburban slopes.- Nampa-AFP