A review of landslides in Nepal, highlighting trends in time, and outlining why this issue needs to be addressed. The UK government’s abnnouncement today that their aid funding for Nepal for the next five years will highlight disaster risk reduction, including reducing landslide losses, is very welcome.

Whilst it has dropped from the news during the winter period, the Attabad landslide crisis in Pakistan rumbles on, with dire consequences for the population on the north side of the barrier.  In the next few days the high passes into China will close again, rendering the population of Gojal isolated once again.  The Pamir Times featured an article a few days ago highlighting how tough conditions are once again: …

One of the most important sites of Buddhist worship is the Tawang Monastery in Himachal Pradesh in northern India. This site, which is home to an estimated 450 lamas and houses many ancient scriptures and other manuscripts. It was founded in 1681, and consists of a collection of many and large small buildings, as shown below (image from here): The extraordinary hilltop location of the site is shown in the …

The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) in Pakistan have now made four reports about Attabad available online here.  These are as follows (with the correct links to each): The dam break study undertaken by NESPAK. A report by Alessandro Palmeiri, from the World Bank My report on the landslide. A report by the Geological Survey of Pakistan dating from before the landslide event about the hazards at the site. Interestingly, …

Most readers will be aware that I collate statistics for fatal landslides occurring worldwide. I have now processed the statistics for September, and the results are as follows: Number of landslide events that caused one or more fatalities worldwide: 36Number of people killed by landslides: 377 This compares with the following average number for 2002-2009: Number of landslide events that caused one or more fatalities worldwide: 37.4 Number of people …

The end of the month marks the point at which I post the accumulated totals for fatal landslides, based upon the global fatal landslide database that I maintain.  The raw figures for August are stark.  The total number of fatal landslides recorded in the month was 71, resulting in 2,740 fatalities.  This total is of course dominated by the Zhouqu landslide in China, which is reported to have resulted in …

Updated at 09:40 UT to provide the correct location. The dreadful effects of the 2010 summer monsoon continue.  Over the next couple of hours I will try to provide an update on all of the events of the last 36 hours, but I’ll start with the overnight landslide in China. Xinhua reports that “At least 96 people have been confirmed dead in landslides triggered by torrential rains in northwest China’s …

Thanks to Ripendra Awal for the heads-up on this one.  The tale of monsoon devastation in South Asia continues with new reports of a valley blocking landslide at Setikhola village, which is located in Narmajung VDC in Kaski District, Nepal.  The landslide occurred on the morning of 3rd August, killing five people according to press reports.  So far 300 people have needed to be moved due to flooding on the …

Long term readers of this blog will know that one of its original purposes was to disseminate the work that I do collating data on fatal landslides worldwide.  As the Attabad situation reduces in its intensity I plan to return to some of those key themes.  So here is a half term report on the occurrence of fatal landslides in 2010. Numbers of landslides:As of the end of 30th June …

Although all eyes, and increasingly those of the media (which is showing considerable interest in this blog), are on Attabad, other landslides are happening around the world as we enter the rainy season in many landslide prone areas of the Northern Hemisphere.  In the last few days a number of significant landslide events have occurred: 1. A landslide-induced rail crash in China this morning.Xinhua reports that an 8000 cubic metre, …