{"id":30659,"date":"2019-04-09T10:31:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T10:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=30659"},"modified":"2019-04-09T10:31:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T10:31:20","slug":"eco-safe-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2019\/04\/09\/eco-safe-roads\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-Safe Roads – resources to guide construction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eco-Safe Roads – resources to guide construction<\/h4>\n

Following my recent post on the need for properly engineered roads in high mountain areas<\/a>, such as Nepal, Karen Sudmeier contacted me to highlight the work that she and her colleagues have undertaken on eco-safe roads.\u00a0 This work is featured in a piece on the IUCN website<\/a>, featuring the use of bioengineering for improving slope stability along mountain roads.\u00a0 Bioengineering is not new, and can be highly effective, but its use remains disappointingly patchy.<\/p>\n

The most useful element of this work is a manual that they have produced entitled “Community-based bio-engineering for eco-safe roadsides in Nepal”<\/em>, which aims to provide “guidance to communities and local government agencies on the occurrence, assessment and mitigation of road construction-induced landslides and erosion<\/em>.”\u00a0 The guide can be downloaded as a PDF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a genuinely fantastic document, free of technical jargon, that both identifies the issues and offers really positive guidance on how to manage them.\u00a0 The first part of the document describes, with diagrams, the types of hazards that might be encountered.\u00a0 For example, this is the section that explains the hazards associated with earthflows:-<\/p>\n

\"eco-roads\"

The hazards associated with earthflows, the guidelines for eco-safe roads. Reference:- Devkota et al.<\/em> (2014).<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

The guidelines then provide a very helpful classification tool for measures to be considered:-<\/p>\n

\"eco-safe

Recommended approaches for the design of eco-safe roads. Reference: Devkota et al.<\/em> (2014).<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

Each of the techniques are then described in detail, including guidance on how to do it, the requirements, the advantages, the functions and the disadvantages \/ limitations.<\/p>\n

I think this is a very helpful, very pragmatic set of guidelines that, if implemented, could make a huge difference.\u00a0 The guidelines can also be adapted easily for other locations \/ territories, in particular through the use of local plant species. They deserve wider recognition.<\/p>\n

Reference<\/h4>\n

Devkota, S., Sudmeier-Rieux, K., Penna, I., Eberle, S., Jaboyedoff, M., Adhikari, A. and R. Khanal (2014) Community-based bio-engineering for eco-safe roadsides in Nepal<\/em><\/a>. Lausanne : University of Lausanne, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Nepal and Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management, Government of Nepal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A consortium has produced a very useful guide to the design and construction of eco-safe rural roads in high mountain areas <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":30662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[212,1705,469,941,27],"class_list":["post-30659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","tag-construction","tag-engineering","tag-featured","tag-mountain","tag-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}