Landslides and Mass Movements

Natural or man-made landslides and mass movements are important geophysical processes that may cause disastrous effects on the environment, as well as social and economic directions. Natural factors include excessive rain, earthquakes, volcanic activities and fast melting of snows, whereas the human aspect includes clearing forests, mining and infrastructure construction, as also the poor land-use methods. Such convulsions cause soil erosion culminating in infrastructure damages and loss of lives. Disaster prevention and mitigation requires knowledge on the reasons behind the disaster, risk assessment and early warning systems. This chapter discusses the forces behind landslides and mass movements, the impact of climate change, and how effective mitigation measures such as slope stabilization, afforestation and the community awareness programs are in alleviating them. The main objective of using interdisciplinary methods is to bring better resilience and policy options on sustainable management of land.