2 February 2010 09:32 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
The Shiaolin landslide disaster in Taiwan, which occurred during typhoon Morakot last August, has been the source of huge controversy. To recap, the landslide, which occurred during an exceptional rainfall event, wiped out Shiaolin village, killing about 500 people. The controversy centred on two key aspects – first, the perceived very slow response of the government to the disaster and second the possibility that tunneling associated with the Zengwen Reservoir …
Tags: investigation, Morakot, shiaolin, taiwan, typhoon
30 September 2009 14:37 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
In addition to visiting the Shiaolin landslide in Taiwan at the weekend, we also managed to visit a couple of other places that had suffered damage during typhoon Morakot. Damage from debris flows and river floods occurred extensively throughout the upland areas of southern Taiwan, as these images show: The government has set aside about US$5 billion for reconstruction. Unfortunately this area is threatened by another typhoon, called Parma:
Tags: debris flow, flood, landslide report, Morakot, taiwan, typhoon
27 September 2009 02:31 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
The aim of this post is to present an initial interpretation of the Shiaolin landslide, based upon a couple of days of fieldwork by Chris Massey and myself over the past two days. The interpretation here, which I have written (so don’t blame Chris!) should be considered to be provisional at best. At the end of the post there are some thoughts about future work. We have no intention at …
Tags: images, landslide report, photo essay, taiwan
19 September 2009 08:38 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
This afternoon at the Chi-Chi earthquake conference in Taiwan the organiser laid on a special session on the impact of Typhoon Morakot in August. This is of great interest to me, given the impact of the landslides, so I thought I’d give summary of the key points. Apologies for the note form – I have done this Twitter-style! 1. The magnitude of the typhoonFor Taiwan this was an extraordinary event. …
Tags: conference report, flood, landslide report, lessons, taiwan, typhoon
17 September 2009 06:56 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
The Chi-Chi earthquake struck Taiwan on 21st September 1999. To remember that event, a range of organisations in Taiwan have organised a scientific conference aimed at sharing the lessons learnt from the earthquake. I was lucky enough to be invited to speak on landslides triggered by the event – my paper is tomorrow – but I thought I would also post on some of the most interesting presentations as they …
2 September 2009 20:37 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
The largest landslide triggered by typhoon Morakot occurred at Shiaolin in Kiaosiung County. It is estimated that 450 people died in this landslide. Until now I have been struggling to find a decent image of the slide itself, apart from the poor quality aerial photography and drone video that I have highlighted previously. However, I have today come across the following three images on the Taiwan News website: Click on …
31 August 2009 16:40 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
Aerial image of Hsiaolin from CNR-IRPI I have today returned from my holiday, so normal service should be resumed. Interestingly, the number of readers of the blog appears to have increased in my absence. There is a lesson there I think! Anyway, I have a large backlog of things to post, but unfortunately also have a large backlog of other work as well, so it may take some time. Anyway, …
Tags: landslide report, Morakot, taiwan, typhoon
27 August 2009 17:20 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
The Taipei Times, which is the premier English language newspaper in Taiwan, has generously run as an Op. Ed. an improved version of my blog post reflecting on landslide management in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot. This is available here.
Tags: landslide management, taiwan, tropical cyclone, typhoon
18 August 2009 17:44 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
For landslide scientists Taiwan has an almost mythical status, effectively being the nearest thing to a landslide laboratory. To my great benefit I have been able to work on landslides in Taiwan since 1991. As well as being a country of great beauty (there are good reasons why the Portuguese named it Ilha Formasa – Beautiful Island – in 1544), the combination of high rates of tectonic uplift, weak rocks, …
Tags: earthquake, landslide management, landslide report, planning, taiwan, typhoon
18 August 2009 06:56 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
Thanks to Tsou Ching-ying from Kyoto University for providing this pair of images, showing the impact of the mudslides on Shiaolin village in Taiwan as a result of Typhoon Morakot. Before (from an online album here): After (from an online album here):
Tags: images, landslide report, taiwan, typhoon
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