{"id":14707,"date":"2015-02-27T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=14707"},"modified":"2015-02-27T09:00:02","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T09:00:02","slug":"george-monbiot-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2015\/02\/27\/george-monbiot-1\/","title":{"rendered":"George Monbiot and the Harbury landslide"},"content":{"rendered":"
George Monbiot<\/h5>\n

George Monbiot<\/a> is a renowned writer and commentator, primarily on environmental and social justice issues, who pens a regular article in the UK newspaper The Guardian<\/a>.\u00a0 I admire his work greatly – The Guardian is my newspaper of choice – primarily because he has an ability to see through clarity through complex issues.\u00a0 Interestingly, earlier this week he wrote an article focused primarily on the Harbury landslide, entitled “Our government\u2019s big green idea: let\u2019s\u00a0subsidise natural disasters<\/a>“.\u00a0 The point of the article is good and sound – he is making the argument that poor slope management in the uplands of the UK is increasing the occurrence of land degradation and landslides.\u00a0 I have no issue with this – indeed I welcome the observation.\u00a0 Upland catchments in the UK should be managed much more proactively to mitigate erosion, landslides and downstream flooding, rather than to the benefit of a small number of wealthy land owners.\u00a0 This will become more acute as the climate changes over the next few decades.<\/p>\n

But, George Monbiot’s linkage of this issue to the Harbury landslide looks to be wide of the mark.\u00a0 He notes that in the years prior to the landslide Network Rail<\/a> cleared the embankments of vegetation, most notably the larger trees.\u00a0 George Monbiot links this to the increase in landslides along the line<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The Harbury cutting is one of the deepest and steepest in the UK. The satellite photographs show that in 2006 the slope was heavily forested. The next image, captured in 2010, reveals that the trees had been removed and it had been scraped from top to bottom. By 2012, when the most recent Google Earth image was taken, it remained bare and grey.<\/p>\n

“Network Rail, which carried out this work in 2008, says it did so to protect the track. But grubbing out the trees, leaving the soil bare and scouring it vertically, without at least greatly lengthening the slope to reduce its angle, looks to me like a spectacular act of folly.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And indeed George Monbiot is correct that Google Earth images do show the removal of vegetation from the slope during this period.\u00a0 This is the Google earth image from 2006:<\/p>\n

\"George<\/a>

Google Earth<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

And this is the 2012 image:<\/p>\n

\"George<\/a>

Google Earth<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

But look carefully at the images and you will see that this is much more complex than simple tree removal.\u00a0 It appears to me that the slope has been deliberately reprofiled, with the top layers having been removed, presumably to increase stability.\u00a0 In addition, it is very clear that drains have been installed.\u00a0 So this is self-evidently not a case of simple removal of trees, but rather a concerted effort to improve the stability of the slope.<\/p>\n

And incidentally, it is quite reasonable and indeed sensible for Network Rail to remove trees from embankments.\u00a0 In the UK the embankments were frequently constructed well over a century ago.\u00a0 Stability in these cuttings is dependent on the drainage system, which is sophisticated (the Victorians were very good engineers) but vulnerable to disturbance.\u00a0 Large trees damage the drains, so it is sensible to remove them before this happens. \u00a0 Broken drains focus water at particular points, greatly increasing the likelihood of failure.\u00a0 And of course large trees can also fall onto the line, which represents a hazard in its own right.<\/p>\n

And then of course we should take a look at the 2015 landslide.\u00a0 On Youtube there is a very nice video of the landslide taken from a drone<\/a>:<\/p>\n