Landslide hazard and risk in the Dessie Town area (Ethiopia)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a geo-environmental study carried out in the urban area of Dessie town, one of main urban centres of Ethiopia with 200,000 inhabitants. In this area, landslides heavily interact with a disorderly expanding human settlement, inducing high risk conditions for human lives, buildings, infrastructures and economic activities. Based on a detailed geological and geomorphological field survey and mapping, a GIS-based analysis of landslide susceptibility has been applied to the Dessie basin, one of the "hanging" tectonic depressions located along the western Afar margin. Landslide hazard and risk maps were successively produced for the central sector of Dessie town. The landslide risk map and the related report will constitute the starting point for a possible plan of risk mitigation in the urban area of Dessie. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.