TXT-tool 2.062-1.1: A landslide monitoring and early warning system

Abstract

Landslides are one of most common major disasters in Indonesia due to the physical susceptibility of the region and socio-economical conditions within the country. Efforts are urgently needed to avoid or reduce the risk of landslides. Unfortunately, most landslide-susceptible areas have very fertile soils and abundant very good quality water. The susceptible areas are thus usually densely populated, with serious consequences with respect to slope instability. Despite efforts to establish slope protection zones that are restricted for any development and settlement, relocation programs cannot easy to be carried out due to socio-economic constraints. Therefore, landslide monitoring, prediction and early warning systems are urgently required to guarantee the safety of communities in such areas. A long running and sustainable community-based landslide monitoring and early warning system has been developed in Indonesia that includes collaboration among the local government, universities, private sectors, NGOs, and the disaster management community. The program has three stages: the development of a simple and low-cost landslide early warning system, the design and implementation of the warning system in real time, and the establishment of a socio-technical strategic approach to disaster risk reduction. These activities have already met community needs and helped save lives, and they continue to obtain solid community support. Now the further challenges are to expand the project coverage, and propose more effective landslide monitoring, early warning, analysis, and visualization. In addition, the capabilities in socio-economic risk assessment need to be expedited to help identify those most at-risk within the community. This chapter describes the achievements and the current activities of the IPL-158 Project “Development of Community-based Landslide Early Warning System”.