{"id":43336,"date":"2023-03-30T06:36:24","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T06:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=43336"},"modified":"2023-03-30T06:36:24","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T06:36:24","slug":"buriticupu-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2023\/03\/30\/buriticupu-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Buriticupu: a town with a chronic gully and landslide problem in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Buriticupu: a town with a chronic gully and landslide problem in Brazil<\/h4>\n<p>Buriticupu is a town in municipality in Maranh\u00e3o in <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?s=brazil&amp;submit.x=0&amp;submit.y=0&amp;mswhere=blog\">Brazil<\/a>, located on a plateau with steep slopes, founded in 1994. Its population is about 73,000 people.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ak59DYIVWUc\">Reuters has a very nice video about a chronic landslide problem that is affecting the town<\/a>, with the issues rapidly escalating over the last year:-<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Families in fear as rains worsen landslides in Brazil\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ak59DYIVWUc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Google Earth imagery (the town is at [-4.327, -46.457]) shows that the town has landslide problems on many slopes -some reports suggest 26 different locations.\u00a0 The image below is one of the worst affected areas, as captured in 2014, before the problem became too serious:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43338\" style=\"width: 809px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43338\" class=\" wp-image-43338\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-1.jpg\" alt=\"Google Earth imagery of the site of some of the landslide problems at Buriticupu in Brazil. Image from 2014.\" width=\"799\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-1.jpg 1571w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-1-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-1-1024x597.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-1-768x448.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-1-1536x896.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-43338\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Google Earth imagery of the site of some of the landslide problems at Buriticupu in Brazil. Image from 2014.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>This is the same site in July 2022:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43340\" style=\"width: 809px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43340\" class=\" wp-image-43340\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-2.jpg\" alt=\"Google Earth imagery of the site of some of the landslide problems at Buriticupu in Brazil. Image from July 2022.\" width=\"799\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-2.jpg 1570w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-2-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-2-1024x597.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-2-768x448.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-2-1536x895.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-43340\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Google Earth imagery of the site of some of the landslide problems at Buriticupu in Brazil. Image from July 2022.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>I have created a slider to allow the sites to be compared:-<\/p>\n<div class=\"juxtapose\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-1.jpg\" alt=\"Google Earth imagery of the site of some of the landslide problems at Buriticupu in Brazil. Image from 2014.\" width=\"799\" height=\"466\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-2.jpg\" alt=\"Google Earth imagery of the site of some of the landslide problems at Buriticupu in Brazil. Image from July 2022.\" width=\"799\" height=\"466\" \/><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.estadao.com.br\/brasil\/buracos-vocorocas-gigantes-ameacam-cidade-maranhao-calamidade-nprm\/\">Estadao has a short article about the issues in Buriticupu in Portuguese<\/a>.\u00a0 It includes this image:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43344\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43344\" class=\" wp-image-43344\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-3.jpg\" alt=\"One of the landslides at Buriticupu in Brazil. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-3.jpg 932w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/03\/23_03-Brazil-3-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-43344\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>One of the landslides at Buriticupu in Brazil. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.estadao.com.br\/brasil\/buracos-vocorocas-gigantes-ameacam-cidade-maranhao-calamidade-nprm\/\">Image by Mauricio Marinho via Reuters and Estadao<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>These issues at Buriticupu are primarily rapid headward and lateral erosion of gullies, driven by toe erosion and then slope failure, as the image above shows.\u00a0 The materials appear to be deeply weathered (hence the red colour), and thus will be weak.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.estadao.com.br\/brasil\/buracos-vocorocas-gigantes-ameacam-cidade-maranhao-calamidade-nprm\/\">The Estadao article<\/a> ascribes the problems to <em>&#8216;deforestation, disorderly occupation, relief and sandy soil&#8217;<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In my experience, these problems are often associated with inadequate water management in the towns, both in terms of water supply and sewage disposal, and the control of surface drainage from the roads and pavements.\u00a0 It would be interesting to know if that is the case here.\u00a0 Unfortunately, once these problems start they are difficult to stop unless there is substantial engineering intervention into the gullies themselves, along with good water management in the town.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Buriticupu is a town with a population of about 73,000 that is being affected by a chronic gully and landslide problem.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":43344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,29],"tags":[102,325,469,30741,959,30742,122],"class_list":["post-43336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","category-landslide-video","tag-brazil","tag-erosion","tag-featured","tag-gully","tag-landslide-report","tag-reuters","tag-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43336","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=43336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}